Field horsetail is a perennial with a spreading rhizome system. Like ferns, field horsetail does not

1
Botanical description

• Field horsetail is a perennial with a spreading
  rhizome system. Like ferns, field horsetail does
  not produce flowers or seeds. This species
  reproduces by spores and more commonly by
  creeping rhizomes and tubers
• Two separate stages in their life cycle. The one
  is the spore producing stage, which includes the
  vegetative stems. The other is called a
  gametophyte that goes through the sexual part of
  horsetails life cycle. The gametophyte requires
  a wet environment to survive
• However, vegetative reproduction allows horsetail
  to wander into drier environments. Horsetail has
  a deep root system with rhizomes that can produce
  many terrestrial stems, giving it the appearance
  of a colony

http//www.btny.purdue.edu/weedscience/
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Botanical description

• Plants produce two types of stems. The fertile
  (reproductive) stems appear in the early spring.
  The tips of fertile stems end in a yellowish to
  brownish spore-producing cone. Fertile stems
  wither and die once spores have been produced,
  usually by early summer
• Sterile (vegetative) stems emerge later than the
  fertile stems and are markedly different. They
  look like miniature pine trees with their
  plume-like branches

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Distribution

• both species, E. arvense and E. Hyemale, are
  ubiquitous in the US

Map source http//plants.usda.gov
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Rhizome description

• The rhizomes are dark brown or blackish, 3 to 5
  mm in diameter and covered with brownish hairs
  that give them a felt-like feel rhizome
  internodes are approximately 4 to 5 inches apart.
  Rhizomes grow vertically to 6 feet deep and
  horizontally to depths of 10 to 20 inches. The
  horizontal rhizomes branch freely, produce
  numerous shoots and form rounded tubers about 0.5
  inch in diameter either singly or in pairs
• Rhizome system produces numerous shoots and
  tubers. Tubers have a high starch concentration.
  Tubers and rhizomes are used both in vegetative
  reproduction and as storage organs.

Illustration of vegetative growth of Equisetum
arvense from tuber (a) and rhizome fragment (b)
Sakamaki et al. J Plant Res (2006) 119677683
http//www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/weedguide/fullimag
e.asp?id8
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Rhizome description

• Buds and tubers on the rhizomes are capable of
  reaching the surface from great depths. Single
  rhizome segments 0.5 inch long planted 6 inches
  deep easily produced new plants (Cloutier and
  Watson, 1985). Plants can only tolerate shade for
  short periods unless they have sizable quantities
  of carbohydrates stored in the established
  rhizomes. Tuber production drops rapidly as shade
  levels increase conversely tuber production is
  optimized when plants grow in full sunlight.
  Horsetail responds to potassium and its growth is
  optimal in soils with high available K levels
  (Andersson and Ludegardh, 1999).
• Horsetail rhizomes extend for long distances and
  are often 3 feet or more below the ground
  surface. Rhizomes send up numerous aboveground
  shoots of two different types at various times of
  the year. Tubers are primarily food storage
  organs but develop into new plants if removed
  from the rhizome.
• Sterile shoots of horsetail (those that look like
  small pine trees) appear in early May and reach a
  maximum growth rate in July, maximum shoot height
  in August, and maximum shoot number in September
  (Marshall, 1985). Rhizome growth accelerates
  rapidly between June and July and peaks in
  October. Tubers appear in July and increase in
  weight until a killing frost occurs.