Really quite impressive thicket of Great Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia) in this railway siding at Three Bridges. Fairly easy to ID even at a distance because it’s biiiig (1 metre tall or more) and has very pale, almost white jointed stems.

#Equisetum #VC13 #WestSussex #Crawley #ferns #horsetails

Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) grows fertile shoots in early spring and the typical non-fertile, many-branched green stalks later in the year.

#Equisetum #Horsetails #Wetlands

Here are a few #horsetail plants, seen on my walk #today (yesterday, actually).

Plus a wandering "woolly bear" (#TigerMoth) #caterpillar.

Horsetails are 150 million-year-old living fossils that were eaten by - yes! - Jurassic #dinosaurs.

Also, their unique node spacing inspired #JohnNapier in 1614 to invent #logarithms.

Admittedly, some rude US jurisdictions (wtf Oregon...?) classify them as noxious weeds.

But imho this is an amazing plant with a wonderful résumé 💚

#Equisetum #Spring