Horsetail/Equisetum

Just "playing" with my macro lens outdoors here - a lens that had previously only ever been used indoors for flowers and waterdrops : ) Because I have to be within about 6" of the subject, I find this lens is an absolute neck-killer! I LOVE the strobilus (cone-like structure at the tips of some of the stems) of any kind of Horsetail - not sure which species this one is. The much-reduced leaves of horsetails "grow in whorls fused into nodal sheaths. ... The stems are green and photosynthetic, and distinctive in being hollow, jointed and ridged (with sometimes 3 but usually 6-40 ridges) and these are often played with by children who will separate and then seamlessly rejoin the segments." The leaves are seen here across the middle of the image. Taken while we were botanizing Priddis Greens Golf Course, recording all the flora and fauna seen that day.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum