THE HORSETAILS.
(Equisetaceae)

Most everyone is acquainted with this group of plants. Their characteristically round, ridged and conspicuously jointed hollow stems with toothed sheaths covering the joints and the whorls of bristly linear leaves make these plants very conspicuous.

In Mount Rainier National Park there are four species. These vary in appearance from the very tall Giant Horsetail (Equisetum telmateia), which is common in such places as the marshy soils in the Longmire meadow, to the Field Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) which is most generally noted in the poor soils bordering park highways. The latter plant seldom exceeds 18 inches in height.

The four species are listed in the check list (see page 9) and a distinction is made between them in the field key on page 10.

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CLUB MOSSES.
(Lycopodiaceae)

These members of the Pteridophytes appear more like mosses than ferns. The various species have a great number of common names, in none of which does the word "fern" appear. Nevertheless they possess certain basic characters that account for their place, along with the ferns (family Polypodiaceae), in the Pteridophytes.

There are five species listed as native to Mount Rainier National Park (see check list, page 9). They are perennial evergreens composed of trailing stems from which upright branches, often bearing groups of club-like elongated sporophylls or "cones", arise. These groups of sporophylls are generally arranged "candelabra-fashion". The exception to this, however, is in the Fir Club-Moss (Lycopodium selage) in which case the sporophylls are borne in the axils of the leaves. Sporophyll branches are sparsely leaved. The vegetative stems of the plant are closely covered - sometimes imbricated or overlapping, like shingles on a roof - by small moss-like leaves.

The creeping stems, moss-like foliage and club-like "cones" readily identifies this group of plants. Specific determination is made possible by means of the field key on pages 11 and 12.

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