Хвощёвые - Equisetopsida 5/8/09—5/5/23
Equisetopsida, or Sphenopsida, is a class of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. Living horsetails are represented by about twenty herbaceous species in the single genus Equisetum. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like branches radiating at regular intervals from a single vertical stem.
The Equisetopsida were formerly regarded as a separate division of spore plants and also called Equisetophyta, Arthrophyta or Sphenophyta; today they have been recognized as rather close relatives of the typical ferns (Pteridopsida) and form a specialized lineage of the Pteridophyta. However, the division between the Equisetopsids and the ferns is so ancient that many botanists, especially paleobotanists, still regard this group as fundamentally separate at the higher level.
In the molecular…