Plantae > Tracheophyta > Polypodiopsida > Equisetales > Equisetaceae > Equisetum > Equisetum hyemale

Equisetum hyemale (scouring horsetail; scouringrush; scouringrush horsetail; horsetail; tall scouring-rush; western scouringrush)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Equisetum hyemale, commonly known as rough horsetail, scouring rush, scouringrush horsetail and in South Africa as snake grass, is a perennial herb in the fern Division Pteridophyta. It is a native plant throughout the Holarctic Kingdom, found in North America, Europe, and northern Asia.
View Wikipedia Record: Equisetum hyemale

Infraspecies

Equisetum hyemale affine (Scouringrush horsetail)
Equisetum hyemale f. hyemale
Equisetum hyemale f. polystachyum
Equisetum hyemale f. pumilum
Equisetum hyemale f. ramigerum
Equisetum hyemale hyemale (Common Scouring Rush)

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
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 [3]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Structure [3]  Fern
Usage [2]  The stems are very rich in silica; They are used for scouring and polishing metal; The stems are first bleached by repeated wetting and drying in the sun; They can also be used as a polish for wooden floors and furniture; The infused stem is an effective fungicide against mildew, mint rust and blackspot on roses; It also makes a good liquid feed; Used as a hair rinse it can eliminate fleas, lice and mites; A light pink dye is obtained from the stem; The hollow stems have been used as whistles; Another report says that the stem joints are pulled apart and used by children to produce a whistling sound;
Height [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Light Preference [4]  Mixed Sun/Shade
Soil Acidity [4]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [4]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [4]  Damp
View Plants For A Future Record : Equisetum hyemale

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Stamnaria americana[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 5Jorrit 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.
♦ 6Capra sibirica, Alexander K. Fedosenko and David A. Blank, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 675, pp. 1–13 (2001)
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