Genus: Equisetales (horsetails)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Monilophyta (ferns)

Equisetum giganteum in Botanical Gardens, San Francisco, USA. Species of this size are not encountered in southern Africa today but there are fossil horsetails from this region that are even bigger. [photo H. Robertson, Iziko ©]

One species native to southern Africa : Equisetum ramosissimum.

The Class Equisetopsida contains a single order the Equisetales, so whether you call the group Equisetopsida or Equisetales, it comes to the same thing.

Publications

• Roux, J.P. Pteridophyta. In Germishuizen, G. & Meyer, N.L. (eds), Plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14: 65-86. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.