Englis: Great horsetail; Northern giant horsetail.
Region: Europe, western Asia, northwest Africa, western North America.
BotanyFern; perennial; spreads laterally by rhizomes, up to 4 meters far.
Stems: green; photosynthetic, sterile, growing in late spring, dying down in late autumn, 30 to 150 cm tall; pale, yellowish, non-photosynthetic, spore-bearing, fertile stems, growing in in early spring, 15 to 45 cm tall, with an apical spore-bearing strobilus of 4 to 10 cm long and 1 to 2 cm broad, no side branches; occasionally stems that are both fertile and photosynthetic.
Spores: disperse in mid spring.