Horsetails

The sunlight in the forest was in just the right place for these two Horsetails growing in front of a fallen log. The almost seemed to glow. Seen on June 18th at the Perrenoud Natural Area, north west of Cochrane (which is north west of Calgary).

"Equisetum (pronounced /ˌɛkwɨˈsiːtəm/) (horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in the Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.

Equisetum is a "living fossil", as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida, which for over one hundred million years was much more diverse and dominated the understory of late Paleozoic forests. Some Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall; the genus Calamites of family Calamitaceae for example is abundant in coal deposits from the Carboniferous period." From Wikipedia.