THE FIELD HORSETAIL

Synonyms for Field Horsetail: Bottle-brush, candock, common horsetail, corn horsetail, Dutch rushes, paddock-pipes, pewterwort, scouring rush, shave-grass, western horsetail
Scientific Name: Equisetum arvense L.
Family: Equisetaceae (Horsetail family)

Description:

So delicate and yet so scratchy; so hard that people used to polish their pewter with it, but so brittle that it breaks easily; the field horsetail is among the most primeval plants. Around 350 million years ago, in the Carboniferous period, together with ferns and club moss it formed huge forests. However, while horsetails in the Carboniferous era grew to a height of 30 metres, their modern counterparts reach a more modest 30 to 40 centimetres and live on damp, clayey arable land, the edges of meadows, wasteland and banks. Sharp side shoots that resemble pine needles grow in whorls from the grooved main stem. Stems and side shoots consist of several jointed segments which give the appearance of being stacked. The joints are enclosed in much reduced, finely toothed leaves which clasp the stem like cuffs. The stems can be easily broken off at the joints. The largest part of the horsetail is subterranean: most of the stems grow horizontally under the ground, where they branch widely. The roots themselves are unremarkable. In winter the horsetail withdraws entirely into its underground parts. It is a spore-bearing plant, i.e. it does not flower but develops cone-like structures which contain the spores. The separate, cone-bearing stems are brownish in colour and appear in early spring. They are followed a few weeks later by branched, sterile green stems.