giant horsetail
Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii
Equisetaceae

Horsetails are so unusual looking. I was surprised to find out it's considered a fern, in a broad sense of the definition. Makes sense, I guess. In a previous horsetail post, I removed the label native wildflower, obviously because it doesn't flower, and have added new labels for horsetails and ferns. It is a native plant. Like grasses, I don't attempt to ID most ferns and you'll notice a definite lack of grass and fern posts on Nature ID.

giant horsetail
Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii
Equisetaceae

I'm not going to make a guess as to species since I know so little about horsetails. They are elegant in a horsetail kinda way.

ps 02/12/11 - After considering the giant horsetails I recently saw, I'm now making a guess as to species after looking at the two species found in this area. I've made corrections to the ID above.

pss 04/26/18 - Again, I looked at horsetails after our annual anniversary hike. I now understand there are sterile and fertile stems of horsetails (Jepson's here and here), so instead of my common horsetail (Equisetum arvense) ID, I've changed it back to giant.  As a disclaimer, it is quite possible that both species occurs here and my photos of various plants show both, given the extreme variation of growth pattern on the same day.