Equisetidae
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Equisetidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns), a group of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like branches radiating at regular intervals from a single vertical stem.
Equisetidae
Vegetative stem: N = node, I = internode, B = branch in whorl, L = fused microphylls
Cross-section through a strobilus; sporangiophores, with attached sporangia (spore capsules) full of spores, can be discerned.
Strobilus of E. telmateia, terminal on an unbranched stem
Fern
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The ferns are a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.
Image: Psilotum
Image: Equisetopsida
Image: Flickr brewbooks Angiopteris evecta Mule's foot fern (1)
Image: WP2 Hymenophyllum Exkursion nach Berdorf (Luxemburgexkursion) 011