Externally it was traditionally used for chilblains and wounds. In polluted conditions, it may synthesize nicotine. The buds are eaten as a vegetable in Japan and Korea in spring. It is rich in silicon (10%), potassium, calcium, manganese, magnesium and phosphorus, phytosterols, dietary fiber, vitamins A, E and C, tannins, alkaloids, saponins, flavonoids, glycosides and caffeic acid phenolic ester. The plant contains several substances that can be used medicinally. The stem has many strong lengthwise ridges. Lower on the stem are two sheaths of merged microphylls. At the top is the strobilus, which consists of the axis (inside) and 15–20 horizontal circles of about 20 sporangiophores. It is less widespread in the southern hemisphere, but it occurs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Madagascar, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. The plant is widespread in the northern hemisphere, growing as far as 83° North in North America and 71° North in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia and as far south as Texas, India and Iran. It prefers neutral or slightly basic clay loams that are sandy or silty, especially where the water table is high, though it can occur occasionally on slightly acid soils. It commonly occurs in damp and open woodlands, pastures, arable lands, roadsides, disturbed areas, and near the edge of streams. Habitat and distribution Įquisetum arvense grows in a wide range of conditions, in temperatures less than 5 ☌ (41 ☏) to greater than 20 ☌ (68 ☏) and in areas that receive annual rainfall as low as 100 mm (3.9 in) and as great as 2,000 mm (79 in). It has a very high diploid number of 216 (108 pairs of chromosomes). It absorbs silicon from the soil, which is rare among herbs. arvense is a nonflowering plant, multiplying through spores. Some herbicides remove aerial growth but regrowth quickly occurs albeit with a reduction in frond density. Fire, mowing, or slashing is ineffective at removing the plant as new stems quickly grow from the rhizomes. The plant is difficult to control due to its extensive rhizomes and deeply buried tubers. It has changed little from its ancestors of the Carboniferous period. The fertile stems are typically precocious and appear in early spring. The off-white fertile stems are of a succulent texture, 10–25 cm (3.9–9.8 in) tall and 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) diameter, with 4–8 whorls of brown scale leaves and an apical brown spore cone. The solid and simple branches are ascending or spreading, with sheaths that bear attenuate teeth. Some stems can have as many as 20 segments. The erect or prostrate sterile stems are 10–90 cm (3.9–35.4 in) tall and 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) diameter, with jointed segments around 2–5 cm (0.79–1.97 in) long with whorls of side shoots at the segment joints the side shoots have a diameter of about 1 mm (0.039 in). Description Įquisetum arvense creeps extensively with its slender and felted rhizomes that freely fork and bear tubers. One of these is E. calderi, a small form described from Arctic North America. Many species of horsetail have been described and subsequently synonymized with E. arvense. The common name "common horsetail" references the appearance of the plant that when bunched together appears similar to a horse's tail. The specific epithet arvense is from the Latin "arvum", meaning "ploughed", referencing the growth of the plant in arable soil or disturbed areas. Linnaeus described field horsetail with the binomial Equisetum arvense in his Species Plantarum of 1753. This allows this species to tolerate many conditions and is hard to get rid of even with the help of herbicides. Rhizomes can pierce through the soil up to 6 feet (1.8 m) in depth. It is sometimes confused with mare's tail, Hippuris vulgaris. The fertile stems are produced in early spring and are non- photosynthetic, while the green sterile stems start to grow after the fertile stems have wilted and persist through the summer until the first autumn frosts. It has separate sterile non-reproductive and fertile spore-bearing stems growing from a perennial underground rhizomatous stem system. campestre (Schultz) Rupr.Įquisetum arvense, the field horsetail or common horsetail, is an herbaceous perennial plant in the Equisetidae (horsetails) sub-class, native throughout the arctic and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
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