Plantae > Tracheophyta > Polypodiopsida > Equisetales > Equisetaceae > Equisetum > Equisetum palustre

Equisetum palustre (marsh horsetail)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Equisetum palustre, the marsh horsetail or the humpback, is a plant species belonging to the division of horsetails (Equisetopsida). It is widespread in cooler regions of North America and Eurasia.
View Wikipedia Record: Equisetum palustre

Attributes

Hazards [2]  Large quantities of the plant can be toxic. This is because it contains the enzyme thiaminase; In small quantities this enzyme will do no harm to people eating an adequate diet that is rich in vitamin B, though large quantities can cause severe health problems. The enzyme is destroyed by heat or thorough drying, so cooking the plant will remove the thiaminase; The plant also contains equisetic acid - see the notes on medicinal uses for more information;
Leaf Type [1]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Structure [1]  Fern
Usage [2]  The stems contain 10% silica and are used for scouring metal; They can also be used as a polish for brass, hardwood etc; The infused stem is an effective fungicide against mildew, mint rust and blackspot on roses; It also makes a good liquid feed;
Height [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [3]  Mostly Infertile
Soil Moisture [3]  Damp
View Plants For A Future Record : Equisetum palustre

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

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Ecosystems

Predators

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
♦ 5Ecology of Commanster
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0