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Horsetail family (Equisetaceae)
Persistent perennial with long rhizomes, and sterile stems of heights 15-50 cm. Spore-bearing stems initially yellowish-brown, unbranched, greener and more branched on maturation of spores. Stems pale green, delicate, willowy, with 10-14 silica-reinforced ridges (“ribs”). Arranged in whorls are numerous slender side-branches themselves branched and arching downwards, with 4-5 supporting ribs. Spores produced in Apr.-May.
Grows on moist fertile or moderately-fertile soils. On shady forest floors it may form a continuous sward. Mainly present in oak-lime-hornbeam or riparian forest, also in mixed oak-spruce forest.
Descriptions devised by the team at the Independent Department of Forest Botany, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, i.e. L. Witkowska-Żuk, K. Marciszewska, W. Ciurzycki, A. Obidziński and P. Zaniewski.
