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 pratense

Equisetum hyemale

meadow horsetail, prêle des prés, shady horsetail

common scouring-rush, prêle d'hiver, scouring horsetail, scouring rush, scouringrush horsetail, tall scouring-rush
Sheaths

somewhat elongate, 3–5 × 2–4 mm;

teeth 8–18, narrow, 1.5–4 mm, centers dark and margins white.

Aerial stems

dimorphic;

vegetative stems green, branched, 16–50 cm;

hollow center 1/6–1/3 stem diam.

Fertile stems

brown, with stomates, initially unbranched, persisting and becoming branched and green after spore discharge.

Branches

in regular whorls, horizontal to drooping, solid;

ridges 3;

valleys channeled; 1st internode of each branch equal to or longer than subtending stem sheath;

sheath teeth deltate.

Equisetum pratense

Equisetum hyemale
Phenology Cones maturing in late spring.
Habitat Meadows, wet woodlands
Elevation 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AK; CT; IA; IL; MA; ME; MI; MN; ND; NH; NY; VT; WI; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; n Eurasia to ne China; Japan in Hokkaido
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AL; AR; AZ; CA; CO; CT; DC; DE; FL; GA; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SC; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; YT; Mexico; Central America in Guatemala; Europe; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Subspecies 2 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 2. FNA vol. 2.
Parent taxa Equisetaceae > Equisetum > subg. Hippochaete Equisetaceae > Equisetum > subg. Equisetum
Sibling taxa
E. arvense, E. fluviatile, E. hyemale, E. laevigatum, E. palustre, E. ramosissimum, E. scirpoides, E. sylvaticum, E. telmateia, E. variegatum, E. ×ferrissii, E. ×litorale, E. ×mackaii, E. ×nelsonii
E. arvense, E. fluviatile, 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
E. hyemale subsp. affine
Name authority Ehrhart: Hannover. Mag. 22: 138. (1784) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1062. (1753)
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