Identification please.

[Kenn]

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i316/kenliz/Wild%20Flowers/2010_0430Thisandthat0011.jpg

Found this growing all on it's own on a grass verge beside the road and have no idea what it is.

[Scunner]

I could be Mares tail

[porshiepoo]

Unfortunately it most definitely is Mares/Horsetail.
I have a fair bit of here round the pond. It likes boggy ground and once it gets in it's hard to get rid of.
If you spray it with weedkiller then try to crush the stem first to make sure it all gets in. Damned hard to clear though.

Incidentally it's poisonous to Horses. Don't know if that is of use to you but there you are. lol

[Aaldtimer]

If it's growing on solid ground then it's more likely to be Horstail.:confused

[Kenn]

It was on the grass verge about 8" from the road, the nearest water was the burn about 200ft away.

[Kenn]

Thanks Aaldtimer, just been reading up on Horsetail, very interesting.It's good to know that at least 1 primeval plant lives in the area although I can understand people being concerned about it effects on livestock, especially horses, if eaten.

[Aaldtimer]

Yeh Lizz, it is interesting reading about the history of such a survivor, but I haven't come across anywhere that it says it's poisonous to livestock.
Although I would think that animals had enough sense to avoid eating spores!:confused

[porshiepoo]

Yeh Lizz, it is interesting reading about the history of such a survivor, but I haven't come across anywhere that it says it's poisonous to livestock.
Although I would think that animals had enough sense to avoid eating spores!:confused

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicweeds/weed_information/weed.php?id=10

Most certainly is poisonous though.
Lizz's piccy was of a fertile stem with spore cones. Once that dies down after gleefully spreading its spores we then get the sterile stems shoot up.
This plant does die back in the winter but it's the root system that can make it damned hard to get rid of.

[Taraxacum]

Hi, Lizz,
Your picture is of the fertile stem of the Field Horsetail Equisetum arvense. Later the green sterile stem will emerge. It is the only species of horsetail in Caithness that has two forms - in all the other species the fertile cone appears at the top of the green stem. Horsetails are fascinating plants. There are 8 species in Caithness and several hybrids. We have the only known location in the world (St John's Loch) for the hybrid Equisetum x mchaffii.