Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: strobilus

I believe I am correct in saying that this is Equisetum arvense, commonly known as Field Horsetail or Common Horsetail - the spores are contained in this beautiful cone-like strobilus. This macro image was taken on 21 May 2013, NW of Calgary, along the edge of a gravel backroad. I always think that the tiny "plates" look rather like flowers with their "petals".

The first photo shows the Strobilus of a Horsetail, a cone-like structure where the spores are released from. Some stems have a strobilus at the tip, as in photo 1, and other stems look like the second photo, which shows a typical sterile stem. I love photographing strobili! Photographed these yesterday just within the city limits, going west along 22X. They were growing near the edge of a slough. I used Picnik (sp?) to join the two images.