Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Equisetum fluviatile

Equisetaceae

pipes, prêle fluviatile, river horsetail, swamp horsetail, water horsetail

horsetail family
Habit Plants with jointed stems, with distinct nodes.
Sheaths

squarish in face view, ca. 4–10 × 4–10 mm;

teeth black, occasionally with narrow white border, 12–24, narrow, 2–3 mm.

Aerial stems

monomorphic, green, unbranched or branched, 35–115 cm;

hollow center large, to 9/10 stem diam.;

vallecular canals absent.

Branches

when present only from midstem nodes, spreading, hollow, ridges 4–6, valleys rounded; 1st internode of each branch shorter than subtending stem sheath;

sheath teeth narrow.

Leaves

small, whorled, fused into sheaths;

tips remaining free, toothlike.
Sporangia

borne on peltate sporophylls aggregated in cones 0.3–10 cm.
Spores

green (except white in hybrids), all 1 kind.
Gametophytes

green, terrestrial, unisexual;

male gametophytes smaller than female.
2n

=216.

Equisetum fluviatile

Equisetaceae
Phenology Cones maturing in summer.
Habitat Standing in water, in ponds, ditches, marshes, swales
Elevation 0–1500 m (0–4900 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CT; DC; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MT; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SD; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; SPM; Alaska including the Aleutian Islands; Eurasia s to n Italy; China; Korea; Japan
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Nearly worldwide
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Genus 1, species 15 (11 species in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2, p. 76. Author: Richard L.Hauke.
Parent taxa Equisetaceae > Equisetum > subg. Hippochaete
Sibling taxa
E. arvense, E. hyemale, E. laevigatum, E. palustre, E. pratense, E. ramosissimum, E. scirpoides, E. sylvaticum, E. telmateia, E. variegatum, E. ×ferrissii, E. ×litorale, E. ×mackaii, E. ×nelsonii
Subordinate taxa
Synonyms E. limosum
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1062. (1753) Michaux ex DeCandolle
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers