Fern Ally: Horsetail Family:-

"Ferns and their allies are a very ancient order of flowerless plants, comprising the Ferns, Horsetails, Clubmosses and Quillworts, all perennial except for the rare Jersey Fern (Polypody Family). They have no seed, but reproduce themselves by minute dust-like spores. These are produced in tiny capsules (sporangia), and give rise without any sexual process to tiny short-lived plants called prothalli, which bear male and female organs and carry out the reproductive process in the presence of moisture and not by insect or wind fertilisation, leading to the formation of a new fern plant. This process is called alternation of generations. In the Ferns the prothalli are usually small green heart-shaped scale-like plants, 1/4 - 1/2 inch across, which may often be found in damp shady spots near fern colonies, sometimes with tiny fern plants growing from them.

The Mosses, Liverworts, Stoneworts (Chara and Nitella species), Algae, Seaweeds and other more primitive flowerless plants have only cellular and not fibrous or vascular tissue, and lack true roots and usually stems as well, but are sometimes very hard to distinguish except by a knowledge of their reproductive habits.

Horsetails are a distinctive family of leafless and flowerless creeping perennials, with tubular jointed, furrowed, usually erect stems; joints crowned by toothed sheaths, which replace the leaves. At the joints of some species there are more or less regular whorls of ribbed and jointed linear green branches. Spores are borne 406 together on the underside of hexagonal scales, which fit closely together to form a pavement-like surface to the long egg-shaped terminal cones, which in our rarer species end in a very fine point. In some common species the cones are borne on separate, earlier, fatter, pale brown unbranched stems, which appear and wither early in the year, and are followed by the taller thinner greener barren stems, which last till autumn. The foetid submerged Stoneworts (Chara and Nitella) might be taken for Horsetails or Marestail (Marestail Family), but have no true roots and orange fructifications on their branches. Charas are brittle and lime-encrusted; Nitellas are smooth and translucent.

" from Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers by David McClintock and R.S.R. Fitter assisted by Francis Rose - ISBN 0 00 219363 9 - Eleventh Impression 1978

Fern Ally: Horsetail Family plant table with its Common Name - Botanical Name. Flowering Months Range. Habitat with link to that Wild Flower Habitat Gallery:-

Common Name

Botanical Name

Terminal Cone Ripening Months

Habitat

Boston Horsetail

(Branched Horsetail)

Equisetum ramosissimum

August-September

An erect evergreen herb found growing in rough grassland near the sea, on sand or clay soil. Lowland.

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage

Form

Common Horsetail (Syn. Field Horsetail)

Equisetum arvense

April

The natural habitats of this deciduous herb include river banks, fixed dune grassland, sea-cliffs and montane flushes, but it has become closely associated with human activity. Being long-lived, vigorous, resistant to herbicides and tolerant of drier conditions than other Equisetum species, it is now frequent on roadsides, railways, paths, soil banks and waste ground, and in quarries and gardens, where its spread is assisted by rhizome fragments.

Spore-Spike from Borough Green

Spore-Spike Detail with Black Spores

Foliage from Hooke

Form from Hooke in Dorset

Dutch Rush

(Rough Horsetail)

Equisetum hyemale

July-August

A slow-growing, evergreen herb forming colonies of shoots from branching rhizomes. It prefers heavy soils derived from sand or clay which are permanently moist and have a high mineral and silica content. It is usually found in shaded open woodland beside streams and rivers, but also grows in base-rich moorland flushes and sand dunes.

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage

Form

Giant Horsetail (Syn. Great Horsetail)

Equisetum telmateia

April

A robust, deciduous, colony-forming herb of base-rich clay soils in sites with spring-lines, permanent seepages and open flushes, especially in areas where porous rocks are interbedded with clays. It prefers open habitats and is particularly frequent on eroding sea- and river-cliffs, but also grows on roadsides and railway embankments. Lowland to 365 m in Fossdale (N.W. Yorks.).

Seed Cones April

Seeds on Seed Cone

Foliage from Chardoun Hill in Dorset on June

Form from Chardoun Hill in Dorset on June

Spore-Cones from Isle of Wight. Photo from BritishFlora

Foliage from Isle of Wight. Photo from BritishFlora

Form from Isle of Wight. Photo from BritishFlora

Marsh Horsetail

Equisetum palustre

May-July

A deciduous herb associated with marshes, damp pastures, ditches, dune-slacks, streams, rivers and mountain flushes. It tolerates a wide range of soil types and substrates, provided that they are permanently damp and adequately base-rich. 0-945 m (Meall nan Tarmachan, Mid Perth).

Seed cone from Leybourne in Kent on 29 August

Seed cone detail from Leybourne on 29 August

Foliage from Leybourne in Kent on 29 August

Form from Leybourne in Kent on 29 August

Shady Horsetail

Equisetum pratense

April

An evergreen herb, typically found on sloping sites where the substrate is derived from calcareous alluvial silts or sand, especially lightly wooded stream banks in the lower parts of upland valleys. It can also extend onto open moorland, and is found on grassy slopes beneath base-rich upland cliffs. 0-915 m (Breadalbanes, Mid Perth).

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage

Form

Variegated Horsetail

Equisetum variegatum

July-August

An evergreen, prostrate herb found in a wide variety of habitats, including dune-slacks, river shingle, upland flushes and stony loch-shores. It is a calcicole and a poor competitor; its sites are usually open and often winter-flooded. In Ireland a more vigorous, upright ecotype is found mostly on canal banks. 0-1040 m (Ben Lawers, Mid Perth).

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage

Form

Water Horsetail

Equisetum limosum

(Equisetum fluviatile)

June-July

This deciduous herb grows in a wide variety of aquatic and semi-aquatic habitats, from ditches and small ponds to large lakes and sheltered rivers. It tolerates a remarkable range of water and substrate pH, nutrient levels, substrate type and water depth, and is often a pioneer species in freshwater successions. 0-915 m (Breadalbanes, Mid Perth).

Spore-Cone from Northants. Photo from BritishFlora

Spore-Cones from Northants. Photo from BritishFlora

Foliage from North Yorkshire

Form from North Yorkshire

Wood Horsetail

Equisetum sylvaticum

April-May

A deciduous, colony-forming herb which generally grows on deep, mildly acidic, often peaty soils that are kept permanently damp by flushing. It occurs on the lower slopes of mountain valleys, steep streamsides, wet ledges and open flushes, beside lakes and on the edges of drainage ditches. It also occurs on wet road verges and railway embankments. 0-850 m (Breadalbanes, Mid Perth).

Spore-Cone

Spore-Cones

Foliage from Kent on 20 June

Form from Kent on 20 June

"We have a choice - to use up the world's resources, or to save humanity" from i The Essential Daily Briefing from The Independent on 26 May 2011:-

It is coming from the people of Ecuador, led by their President Rafael Correa, and it would begin to deal with 2 converging crises.

In the 4 billion years since life on earth began, there have been 5 times when there was a sudden mass extinction of life-forms. The last time was 65 million years ago, when the dinosaurs were killed, probably by a meteor. But now the world's scientists agree that the 6th mass extinction is at hand. Humans have accelerated the rate of species extinction by a factor of at least 100 and the Harvard biologist EO Wilson warns it could reach a factor of 10,000 within the next 20 years.. We are doing this largely by stripping species of their habitat.

At the same time, we are dramatically warming the atmosphere. The joint-hottest year ever recorded was 2010, according to Nasa. The best scientific prediction is that we are now on course for a 3 feet rise in global sea levels this century. Goodbye London, Cairo, Bangkok, Venice and Shanghai.

So where does Ecuador come in? At the tip of this South American country, there lies 4,000 square miles of rainforest where the Amazon basin, the Andes mountains and the equator come together. It is the most diverse place on earth. When scientists studied a single hectare of it, they found it had more different species of trees that the whole of North America put together. It holds the world records for different species of amphibeans, reptiles and bats. And - more importantly - this rainforest is a crucial part of the planets lungs, inhaling huge amounts of heat-trapping gases and keeping them out of the atmosphere.

Yet almost all the pressure from the outside world today is to cut it down. Why? Because underneath that rainforest, there is almost a billion barrels of untapped oil, containing 400 million tons of planet-cooking gases.

The oil beneath the rainforest is worth about 7 billion dollars. Ecuador's democratic government says that, if the rest of the world offers just half of what the oil is worth - 3.5 billion dollars - they will keep the rainforest standing and alive and working for us all. In a country where 38% live in poverty and 13% are on the brink of starvation, it's an incredibly generous offer and one that is popular in the rainforest itself.

No country with oil has ever done anything like this before. Not a single one has ever considered leaving it in the ground because the consequences of digging it up are too disastrous.

They first made this offer in 2006. Chile has offered $100,000. Spain has offered $1.4million. Germany initially offered $50million, then pulled out. Now Mr Carrea is warning they can't wait forever in a country where 13% are close to starving. If they do not have $100million in the pot by the end of this year, he says, they will have no choice but to pursue Plan B - the digging and destruction of the rainforest."

What the idiots in power in the world do not realise is that a 25 feet by 25 feet grass lawn will provide enough oxygen for a person per year. A car travelling 60 miles consumes the same volume of oxygen as a mature beech tree produces in a year. Every person in the UK travels by car, bus or public transport and they therefore consume more oxygen per year than the property they own or the country they live in can create. We get our oxygen from outside the United Kingdom.

We owe over 900 billion pounds and now we are lending more than 3.5 billion dollars to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. We are spending £800,000 on dropping 1 missile on Libya and last month we were involved in 3 wars costing more that £3.5 billion a year. UNFORTUNATELY THE GOVERNMENT IS NOT INTERESTED IN THE FACT THAT WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BREATHE FAIRLY SOON.

Since no government will do it, perhaps you as the individual reading this could send £1 a month by standing order to the Ecuador Embassy in your country, so that President Carrea can carry out Plan A rather than Plan B.

Tommy Cooper statements:-

Two  elephants walk off a cliff...boom,  boom!