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Equisetum variegatum - (image 1 of 4)

Taxonomy

Family: Equisetaceae

Habitat

Wet thickets, bogs, sandy shores.

Associates

Distribution

Circumboreal, south in North America to PA, IL, MN, and CO.

Morphology

Fertile and sterile stems alike, evergreen, ascending or erect, 10-30 cm, 1-2.5 mm diameter, branched near the base, 5-12 ridged; ridges shallowly furrowed and with 2 rows of siliceous tubercles; central cavity a quarter to a third the diameter of the stem, stomates in 2 rows in each main furrow; sheaths slightly flared apically, green, with a blackish apical band; sheath teeth 1-2 mm with a blackish, 2-ridge midstripe and white-hyaline margins, abruptly contracted to a hair-like deciduous tip 0.5-1 mm; strobili small, to 1 cm, subsessile, apiculate.

Notes

Strobili produced May and June

Wetland indicator: FAC

Our plants are var. variegatum. The hybrid with E. hyemale is E. xmackaii (Newman) Brichnan, pictured below, is intermediate in size with sheath teeth with less prominent white margins.

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

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