What is this strange shoot in the bog?

[francisforever]

We have a very boggy bit of the garden - we're thinking about not fighting it and turning it into an actual bog garden. We'll have to fight back the nettles first though, I guess!

We've seen these strange shoots, though, which started off very black but have morphed into these fern-like plants.

Does anyone know what they are? They're slightly taking over and moving to the non-bog parts!

Mare's tail.

It’s Water Horsetail, Equisetum fluviatile, not the same as common mare’s tail.

Meant to add a link: wildflowerfinder.org.uk/Flowers/H/Horsetail(Water)/Horsetail(Water).htm

Oh noooo it's a nightmare to get rid of. Thank you for your help, though! At least we can get started on it now

That stuff is prehistoric and has a massive underground root system making it virtually indestructible.

@NanTheWiser

It’s Water Horsetail, Equisetum fluviatile, not the same as common mare’s tail.

Are you sure about that? Equisetum fluviatile normally grows in water. It looks like juvenile field horsetail to me.

We had horsetail in a previous garden - the main stem of plant the OP's photos show looks different.

We had horsetail in a previous garden - the main stem of plant the OP's photos show looks different. There are at least 8 species of Equisetum native to the UK - OP's is a horsetail (although I doubt that it's E fluviatale because of the habitat), so presumably yours, if it wasn't just at a different stage of growth, was a different species.