蔺木贼 lin mu zei

Equisetum hyemale Linnaeus var. tenellum Liljeblad; E. tenellum (Liljeblad) A. A. Eaton; Hippochaete scirpoides (Michaux) Farwell.

Plants small. Rhizome erect and creeping, blackish brown, nodes and roots with long yellowish brown trichomes or glabrous. Aerial stems perennial, monomorphic, only branched at lower portion, tufted; main stem inconspicuous, 7- or more ridged; aerial stems irregularly undulate, 10-20 cm tall, ca. 0.6 mm in diam. at middle, solid and without longitudinal canals in center, green, but internodes of lower 1 or 2 nodes castaneous, lustrous; internodes 2-2.8 cm; branch 6-ridged; each ridge with 1 shallow longitudinal groove at middle and 2 edges on sides, each edge with 1 row of tooth-shaped protuberances; sheath blackish brown or upper portion blackish brown, lower portion green; sheath teeth 3(-5), broadly lanceolate, apex long aristate, teeth of middle portion blackish brown, margin light brown, membranous, persistent. Strobilus terete, small, ca. 5 × 1.5 mm, apex with acute tip, sessile. 2n = 216.

Forests, grasslands; 500-2600 m. Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Japan, Mongolia, Russia (European part, Far East, Siberia); N Europe, North America (including Greenland)].