Water Horsetail - Equisetum fluviatile

Description

Erect stems to 150 cm high and 2 to 10 mm thick, either unbranched or with whorls of simple branches. Stems have 10 to 30 very fine shallow grooves and a large central cavity, three quarters of the diameter of the stem or more. Stems have numerous tight, green often orange tinged sheaths that bear short, dark, triangular pale edged teeth. Terminal cones are 1 to 1.5 cm long.

Identification difficulty
Habitat

In slow moving freshwater, and pond and lake margins.

When to see it

June and July

Life History

Perennial

UK Status

Fairly common throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 107 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Water Horsetail
Species group:
Ferns & Horsetails
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Equisetales
Family:
Equisetaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
50
First record:
01/07/1998 (John Mousley)
Last record:
24/07/2022 (Bedford, Frank)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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