1. Equisetaceae The family includes a single genus, Equisetum
About 15 species are included in
the genus worldwide, 8 of them
in Vermont.

2. Horsetails are terrestrial herbs of damp areas: wet sandy, gravelly and clay soils of stream or pond edges, wet meadows, damp woods

3. Equisetaceae
Creeping rhizomes and aerial stems
Minute leaves in whorls at nodes
Branches, if present, whorled at nodes
Jointed stems with hollow internodes and nodal septa
Epidermis impregnated with silica
Sporangia in strobili

4. Equisetum hyemale, scouring rush

5. Vegetative Body
Start here on Thursday, March 19

6. Stems erect, jointed, hollow Ridges and grooves on surface

7. Equisetum strobilus with whorls of hexagonal units called sporangiophores

8. Elongation of the strobilus axis separates the sporangio-
phores, exposing the sporangia.
Equisetum: sporangia borne
on sporangiophores in
a strobilus

9. Equisetum hyemale: the winter horsetail