It is still of interest today as an herbal remedy because of its purported effectiveness as a diuretic. This has also created concerns about its potential for invasiveness, and indeed it is considered invasive in New Zealand.īeing a relative of ferns, common horsetail does not reproduce via pollen but via spores which are borne on the plant’s reproductive stems.Įquisetum arvense has a long history of cultural use with Native Americans and ancient Roman and Chinese physicians using it to treat a variety of ailments. Lithium: Horsetail may decrease your body's ability to eliminate lithium (a mood stabilizer), increasing the risk of lithium buildup in the body and severe side effects. Great Horsetail is the tallest Horsetail, and easily recognised by the fawn-coloured long tip of the fertile spike bearing the spores. Because of its rhizomatous growth habit and the depth which its roots can reach, common horsetail can be difficult to eliminate from sites where it is unwanted. As horsetail is a known diuretic, using horsetail with another fluid-flushing medication may cause your potassium levels to drop too low. It spreads from rhizomes which can grow as deep as six feet.Įquisetum arvense is distributed throughout temperate and arctic areas of the northern hemisphere, growing typically in moist soils. These persist from summer until the first frost. The latter, 10 to 25 centimeters long with brown scale leaves and a 10 to 40 millimeters long spore cone, emerge in spring then wither and give way to the sterile, photosynthetic stems.

DESCRIPTION: Perennial with annual stems, dimorphic, 3-7 dm. It has separate sterile non-reproductive and fertile spore-bearing stems growing from a perennial. Woodland Horsetail (Equisetum sylvaticum) FAMILY: Equisetaceae SYNONYMS: Equisetum sylvaticum L. Common Horsetail ( Equisetum arvense)Īn herbaceous perennial relative of ferns, common horsetail consists of two types of stems sterile, non- reproductive and photosynthetic, and reproductive and non- photosynthetic. Equisetum 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. USDA PLANTS Database.Ĭommon Horsetail ( Equisetum arvense). The stems sometimes have whorled branches (in which case they look a bit like a horses tail) but sometimes dont (in which case they really do not look at.

Horse tail