A perennial member of the horsetail family
A native perennial with two strikingly different shoots: pale spring stems carrying spore cones and green stems ringed with slender branches.
Family: Equisetaceae · horsetail family
Genus: Equisetum
Habit: Perennial spreading by underground rhizomes
Height: Green shoots commonly 6–24 inches; fertile shoots usually shorter
Habitat: Moist ground, woodland openings, banks and disturbed places
Spore season: Spring
Two shoot types: Tan to brown, unbranched fertile stems carry blunt cones. Separate green vegetative stems develop regular whorls of branches.
Jointed stems: Ridges run lengthwise along the stem. Tiny leaves are joined into a toothed sheath at each node.
Branch detail: On developed branches, the first segment is longer than the adjacent main-stem sheath. The branches are usually simple and have three or four angles.
Look in moist to moderately dry ground, including banks, woodland openings, trail margins and other disturbed places. Extensive colonies can grow from an interconnected underground rhizome system.
The pale fertile shoots appear in spring and wither after releasing spores. Green branched shoots provide a different view of the plant as the season progresses.
Native across much of North America, including the Great Lakes region, and widespread elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
Water Horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile) bears its cones on green stems, which may also have branches. Its first branch segment is shorter than the main-stem sheath.
Scouring rushes generally have unbranched green stems. Use mature stem sheaths and cones to distinguish their species.
Young shoots can be misleading. Compare developed branches, stem sheaths and fertile shoots together.
The cone is a spore-producing structure called a strobilus. Its tightly packed units bear spore sacs. As the cone opens, the spores are released; horsetails produce neither flowers nor seeds.
Underground rhizomes also allow established plants to spread into colonies.
