Equisetites arenaceus
Horsetail
Middle Triassic (Lower Keuper)
Erfurt Formation
Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

110mm matrix with excellent 31mm horsetail cone.

Equisetites is a genus that has been used to identify various Mesozoic horsetails but some paleobotanists say it’s become too much of a convenient group or “wastebasket” and that the named species require closer study likely to lead to new genera being erected and more of an understanding of horsetail evolution.

Horsetails are vascular plants with a long history dating back to the Carboniferous Period.  They once dominated the vast lowland swamps before cone-bearing plants appeared and largely replaced them across the land areas of the Permian Period – a time of increasingly drier climates worldwide.

Here is a nice Triassic-age specimen for the fossil cone collector.