Equisetum ramosissimum ?

 

Terrestrial herbs with long creeping, copiously branched, subterranean rhizome, 5-10 mm thick, rooting at internodes. Aerial stem 1-2 m tall, branched, dark green, polished, glabrous with ridges and furrows. Leaves minute scaly, at the nodes. Cones terminal, 1-2 x 0.5-0.8 cm; sporophylls peltate, closely packed. Spores 28-35 mm, globose smooth with coiled elators.

Growing along the sandy banks of streams in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of some parts of Kerala.
(Attributions- K. P. Rajesh
 

 

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Equisetum for ID :: Thane :: ARKDEC22 : 6 posts by 2 authors. Attachments (2)

See this Equisetum species in a cultivated garden in Thane in December 2016. Papyrus leaves can also be seen in the background.
Requested to please provide ID, if possible from this limited set of pics.

It rather depends how tall it is – would I be right in thinking it’s a really tall, if not enormous plant, 10 to 15 ft high or more?  If so then it would be the exotic S. American E. robustum, which is occasionally grown in Botanic Gardens.
But if not very big, there is the common E. ramosissimum from throughout India (with rather insignificant forms ramosissimum and debile) – both these species are in the section Hippochaete with hard stems and pointed tops to the “cones”.
But I don’t think E. ramosissimum normally has so much nice coloration on the sheathes, so probably, if it’s big enough. it should be E. robustum.  If I remember rightly it was also grown in the fern-house at the National Botanical Research Institute gardens in Lucknow. 

Thanks …
I found this in a cultivated garden in Mumbai planted in a pot. It was not very tall, may be 3-4 feet tall at the time.
Should this then be E. ramosissimum?

  

 

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