Plant ID help

First of many:

My guess Wood Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum)

Good Lord! You didn't let it implant its spores in you, did you?

Yeah, it looks like one of those ancient, fern-related plants called horsetails or bottlebrushes.

I like your thinking! Definitely a horsetail, and Sylvaticum is the best match for the photos I've seen so far.

Lycopodium obscurum

My guess is Lycopodium obscurum. I remember "obscurum" reminding me of obscure, which in my mind relates to the obscure little brown part coming from the top. Was it growing low to the ground (4-5 inches) and were there a bunch of them? I can't tell as much from the picture. It might be some other type of Lycopodium (there are many). Or another plant entirely. Where wre you? In the woods? Near water?

I'm certain it's not a clubmoss (lycopodium). Mosses don't have those whorls of fused leaves alternating with the branchlets, nor the extreme radial symmetry in the branchlets. Yes, I was in the woods near water - specifically along Caribou Valley Road.

Second: what species of fern is this?
I know cinnamon fern has specialized spore-bearing leaves, but I've never seen ferns where the *lower halves* of leaves were specialized.

Just a guess....Osmunda claytoniana L. (Interrupted Fern)

That first pic is beautiful! What type of environment did you find it in??

My guess royal fern? O.regalis

My first guess would be cinnimon.

BTW I love this stuff keep them coming. My wife thinks we are bunch of science nerds who like mountains in bad weather.

There was some cinnamon fern nearby, and I'm pretty sure this is a different species. I'm liking O. Claytoniana.

Una, this was somewhere around 2000 feet of elevation, along a logging road in mixed woods near a river, in Maine. Woods had a lot of fir and birch, other trees harder to identify (some not leafed out yet). Road provided extra sun which was liked by bluets and strawberries and by a plant with a flower similar to dandelion but a different leaf structure. (Instead of a rosette of serrated leaves and a smooth flower stem, this had no leaves, just a stem with undeveloped leaflets along it (reminded me of indian pipe) . Also the "fluff" on its seeds was unbranched, unlike dandelion seeds which have an umbrella shape.) In slightly shadier spots I saw some purple trillium.

Was it this???

Yes, coltsfoot looks right. Glad to see it's in the aster family, as I guessed.

bigger image

nartreb said:

Yes, coltsfoot looks right. Glad to see it's in the aster family, as I guessed.

Click to expand...

blech, that stuff is rather invasive.

the fern isn't royal fern (too many levels of branching, there's a name for that but I forget) but I don't know ferns well, sorry.

I can't help with the ID, but I believe that Jason is looking for the word "decompound," which I found in my one fern book.

third:
something in the plum family, I think. Two forms were common: this one with elongated, widely separated petals, and another with rounder, tighter petals that looked like a classic cherry or apple tree to me.



Also, check the the lower left corner (click to enlarge): does anything besides birch produce catkins like that? The brown conelike structures belong to the same plant as the catkin, I don't remember noticing those on birches before.

Possibly a Mulberry tree...they have catkins. and white flowers like the ones pictured.

A close-up of a leaf would help.

To be clear: the catkins and the white flowers are totally different species.
Here's a crop on the white flowers with their leaves:
white flowers

And here's a crop on the conelike structures that are on the same plant as the catkins:
conelike

Here's a close-up on the catkins:

fourth: a different white flowering tree

Fifth and sixth... actually I know what these are, just sending a virtual thank-you gift for all the help on this thread