Horsetail Meadow

What looks different about this area? Is it sunnier, wetter, or cooler than the previous section of the trail? This area is dominated by horsetail a plant that looks like a bottlebrush. This vascular plant reproduces by spores rather than seeds, a reproductive strrategy also used by mushrooms. Horsetail is a "living fossil" as it is the only living genus of the entire class of Equisetopsidea. This plant dominated the understory of Paleozoic forest more than 100 million years ago.