Equisetum arvense
A portion of the fertile stem of Equisetum arvense showing the leaf sheath and the dark brown appressed sheath teeth (leaves). Sheath teeth are much larger on the fertile stems than they are on the sterile stems. The fertile stem has no stomata and does not photosynthesize nor does it have any whorls of branches* and will wither and die after spores are shed.
Habitat: along the edge of an alder thicket growing in peat moss.
* There is an uncommon form of Equisetum arvense reported, named Equisetum arvense forma irregrum, that does produce a few branches on its fertile stems but these branches are not further branched as in Equisetum sylvaticum.
"Equisetum arvense" is a herbaceous perennial plant, native throughout the arctic and temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. It has separate sterile non-reproductive and fertile spore-bearing stems, growing from a perennial underground rhizomatous stem system.
