|  back  | forward |

Equisetum scirpoides - (image 1 of 1)

Taxonomy

Family: Equisetaceae

Habitat

Cool moist forests and swamps.

Associates

Distribution

Circumboreal, south in North America to CT, NY, southern IL, IA, SD, and WA.

Morphology

Fertile and sterile stems alike, evergreen, prostrate or ascending, often twisted, 7-25 cm long and 0.5-1 mm in diameter, simple or with a few long branches; primary ridges of the stem 3, tuberculate, broadly and deeply concave (so stem appears 6-ridged); central cavity lacking; stomates in 2 rows per furrow; sheaths 3-4 mm, flaring, with a black band above a green base; sheath teeth 3, scarious-margined, the apex subulate and usually deciduous; strobili 3-5 mm, subsessile, apiculate.

.

Notes

Strobili produced May and June

Wetland indicator: FAC

The smallest of the scouring-rushes, this species is easily identified by its wiry, contorted stems that have only 3 teeth per sheath and lack of a central cavity.              

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

Home