E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Perennial from a felty-hairy, blackish, tuber-bearing rhizome.

Stems:
Sterile stems 15-150 cm tall, 5-20 mm thick, their central cavity more than 2/3 the stem diameter, regularly and abundantly branched, the sheaths with 15-30 teeth, the teeth with dark tips; branches in regular whorls; fertile stems appearing in spring before sterile stems, 10-40 cm tall, pale brown, unbranched, dying when the spores are shed, the sheaths 4-8, pale brown with 20-40 darker teeth.

Cones:
4-8 cm long, hollow, rounded at the tip.