General: Perennial evergreen from a branched, shiny, blackish rhizome.
Stems: 10-50 cm tall, 1-3 mm thick, their central cavity 1/4 the stem diameter, unbranched, the sheaths with 3-14 teeth.
Cones: 5-7 mm long, pointed at the tip.
Notes: A hybrid with E. hyemale (E. x trachyodon A. Braun) was collected on the Queen Charlotte Islands (Calder & Taylor 1968). A hybrid with E. laevigatum (E. x nelsonii [A. A. Eaton] Schaffn.) has not been reported from BC, but can be expected.
Ecological Framework for Equisetum variegatum ssp. variegatum
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
Wet lake shores, streambanks, fens, meadows, clearings and roadsides from the lowland and steppe to subalpine and (rarely) alpine zones; frequent in coastal (ssp. alaskanum) and interior BC (ssp. variegatum); circumpolar, N to AK, E to NF and S to NH, CT, PA, MI, MN, WY, CO, UT, ID and OR; Eurasia.
