Hi Could anyone identify this. I saw this plant (overgrown lichen?) in a village near Bath, Somerset (UK) growing out of a stone wall, amidst creepers and quite a variety of other thingies, the spot was pretty damp and probably shaded (can't be sure, it was late and cloudy). http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b43/sirsiriusb/Plant1.jpg Thank you so much
That's really nice! Can you take a piece to a local nursery and ask about it? It looks like some kind of conifer/evergreen to me, and nothing like lichen.
It's the vegetative stem of horsetail, the genus Equisetum. Generally not identifiable to species using photographs.
Wow! Thank you for the fast reply, you guys rock! Daniel - Do you think it would be possible to identify the species by taking a macro/close up picture of it? I thought only mushrooms could reproduce themselves through spores. Absolutely amazing. I'd love to know if it is possible to grow it at home... Is this an evergreen specimen? Thank you, again. I'm learning so much. Rima - It really is a nice plant. The first time I see the likes of in my life. Its alien/ancient looks left me quite perplexed.... A plant nursery? I didn't even know that existed. Where's the nearest one? Oh well, I'll do some search...
I have some growing outside my front door. " Equisetum fluviatile, a fossil plant that flourished during the middle Miocene age of the Tertiary Division... "
Equisetum telmateia (Giant Horsetail) - it is the only UK species with such stout stems, very readily recognisable
Doesn't look all that stout to me, but there is little in the picture to show scale. Giant horsetail is much larger in its parts (sometimes 10' tall!) than field horsetail, essentially a wetland species. "Though not especially weedy, it prefers wetter soil than most people have in their yards. The epithet Temateia is an old name that means "muddy pool." (Jacobson, Wild Plants of Greater Seattle) In addition to proportions another way to tell is that giant horsetail never makes the low, wispy tufts that field horsetail often does on the more varied sites that it occurs on.
And is this the same species that is so invasive and hard to eradicate here? I didn't think there was any variant of this plant that one would grow unconfined.
Ten species of Equisetum in Europe, plus six rarely encountered hybrids. The only one with non-green stems is Equisetum telmateia - first step in the key. If one doesn't care to judge colour, the key is pretty good - E. telmateia keys out a second time (right away), but I don't recall those steps - something to do with the high number of ridges on the stem and number of sheaths on the stem. Other species in the genus do get a bit harder to identify further into the key.
Brilliant! I'll go back to the plant when there are better light conditions and I'll take a good close-range shot with some object besides it for size comparison. It would be nice to know for sure...
Here's E. telmateia (1: whole plants, and 2: stem bases), and E. arvense (3) to compare Note the blackish sheaths of E. telmateia, at most greenish-brown on E. arvense. The E. telmateia are between 25-70 cm tall, not yet full-grown (in a month or two, they'll be over a metre tall), with stems about 10mm diameter. The E. arvense are 20-30cm tall, stem diameter about 4mm. Photos taken this morning.
