Equisetum sylvaticum
Wood horsetail
How do you recognise wood horsetail?
The stem is upright but often bent at the top, rough, jointed, and grooved, with 10–18 low ridges. The summer shoot grows 30–50 cm tall, and the side branches are numerous and themselves finely branched, which gives the plant its tiered look.
What is it confused with?
Meadow horsetail has unbranched side branches, while wood horsetail branches again. That is the easiest way to tell them apart.
Where does wood horsetail grow, and when does it flower?
Wood horsetail grows in poor and lush spruce mires, in damp and boggy forest and meadows, on roadsides and banks, and in field ditches.
Can you collect it for a herbarium?
Wood horsetail is common, and one summer shoot with its branches is enough. Careful. Do not taste this plant.
Did you know?
Horsetails never flower and reproduce by spores instead, and they are relatives of plants over 300 million years old. The downward-curving tiers of branches make the plant look like a small spruce.
Where does wood horsetail grow in Finland?
The map shows where the species has been recorded. Darker squares mean more observations.
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Observations: GBIF · Map: CARTO, OpenStreetMap
Sources: fi.wikipedia.org
Identify plants with your phone
Linnea identifies a plant from a photo and tells you its name and its story. Every find takes its own numbered place in your herbarium, with the day and the town where you found it.
