Equisetum fluviatile

Last updated

Water horsetail
Equisetum fluviatile Luc Viatour.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Division: Polypodiophyta
Class: Polypodiopsida
Subclass: Equisetidae
Order: Equisetales
Family: Equisetaceae
Genus: Equisetum
Subgenus: E. subg. Equisetum
Species:
E. fluviatile
Binomial name
Equisetum fluviatile
L.
Synonyms [1]
List
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. attenuatum(Milde) A.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. attenuatum(Milde) Vict. ex Dutilly & Lepage
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. brachycladon(Döll) A.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. intermediumA.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. leptocladon(Döll) A.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. limosum(L.) Farw.
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. limosum(L.) Satou
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. linnaeanum(Döll) M.Broun
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. minusM.Broun
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. natans(Vict.) M.Broun
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. polystachium(Brückn.) A.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. polystachium(Brückn.) M.Broun
    • Equisetum fluviatile f. uliginosum(Muhl. ex Willd.) Macloskie & Dusén
    • Equisetum fluviatile var. verticillatum(Döll) A.A.Eaton
    • Equisetum limosumL.
    • Equisetum limosum var. attenuatumMilde
    • Equisetum limosum f. brachycladonDöll
    • Equisetum limosum var. candelabrumHook.
    • Equisetum limosum var. leptocladonDöll
    • Equisetum limosum f. leptocladonDöll
    • Equisetum limosum f. linnaeanumDöll
    • Equisetum limosum var. minusA.Braun ex Engelm.
    • Equisetum limosum f. minusDöll
    • Equisetum limosum f. natansVict.
    • Equisetum limosum f. polystachium(Brückn.) Luerss.
    • Equisetum limosum var. polystachyumA.Braun ex Engelm.
    • Equisetum limosum var. verticillatumDöll
    • Equisetum majusSchinz & Thell.
    • Equisetum polystachiumBrückn.
    • Equisetum uliginosumMuhl. ex Willd.

Equisetum fluviatile, the water horsetail or swamp horsetail, is a vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae. It is a perennial herbaceous pteridophyte that reproduces using spores.

Contents

Description

The green stems grow 50–150 cm tall and 2–8 mm thick. The leaf sheaths are narrow, with 15-20 black-tipped teeth. [2] Many, but not all, stems also have whorls of short ascending and spreading branches 1–5 cm long, with the longest branches on the lower middle of the stem. The side branches are slender, dark green, and have 1–8 nodes with a whorl of five scale leaves at each node.[ citation needed ]

The water horsetail has one of the largest central hollow of the horsetails, with 80% of the stem diameter typically being hollow. [3]

Equisetum fluviatile - a broken stem with the central hollow exposed. Equisetum fluviatile central hollow.jpg
Equisetum fluviatile – a broken stem with the central hollow exposed.

The stems readily pull apart at the joints, and both fertile and sterile stems look alike.[ citation needed ]

The water horsetail is most often confused with the marsh horsetail E. palustre, which has rougher stems with fewer (4–8) stem ridges with a smaller hollow in the stem centre, and longer spore cones 2–4 cm long.[ citation needed ]

Reproduction

The water horsetail reproduces both by spores and vegetatively by rhizomes. It primarily reproduces by vegetative means, with the majority of shoots arising from rhizomes. Spores are produced in sporangia in blunt-tipped cones at the tips of some stems. [2] [3] The spore cones are yellowish-green, 2,5 cm long. [3]

Distribution and habitat

The water horsetail ranges throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere, from Eurasia south to central Spain, Italy, the Caucasus, China, Korea and Japan, and in North America from the Aleutian Islands to Newfoundland, south to Oregon, Idaho, northwest Montana, northeast Wyoming, West Virginia and Virginia.[ citation needed ]

It commonly grows in dense colonies along freshwater shorelines or in shallow water in ponds, swamps, ditches, and other sluggish or still waters with mud bottoms. [4]

This horsetail is sometimes seen as an invasive species because it is very hardy and tends to overwhelm other garden plants unless it is contained. When planting, it is best to plant them with the rhizome in a container.[ citation needed ]

Uses

Domestic

The water horsetail has historically been used by both Europeans and Native Americans for scouring, sanding, and filing because of the high silica content in the stems.[ citation needed ]

Early spring shoots were eaten. Poorer Roman classes at times ate them as a vegetable, despite not being very palatable or nutritious. [3]

Medical and agricultural

Medically it was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans to stop bleeding and treat kidney ailments, ulcers, and tuberculosis, and by the ancient Chinese to treat superficial visual obstructions. [ citation needed ]

According to Carl Linnaeus, reindeer, which refuse ordinary hay, will eat this horsetail, which is juicy, and that it is cut as fodder in the north of Sweden for cows, with a view to increasing their milk yield, but that horses will not touch it. [3] It has also been used as a feed for livestock in Finland and is considered valuable, even better than many cultivated hays. [2]

Horsetails absorb heavy metals from the soil, and are often used in bioassays for metals.[ citation needed ]

Taxonomy

Linnaeus was the first to describe water horsetail with the binomial Equisetum sylvaticum in his Species Plantarum of 1753. In the same work, he also described the unbranched form of the plant as a separate species, E. limosum. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Equisetum</i> Genus of vascular plants in the family Equisetaceae

Equisetum is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds.

<i>Ophioglossum vulgatum</i> Species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae

Ophioglossum vulgatum, commonly known as adder's-tongue, southern adder's-tongue or adder's-tongue fern, is a species of fern in the family Ophioglossaceae.

<i>Lycopodium</i> Genus of vascular plants in the family Lycopodiaceae

Lycopodium is a genus of clubmosses, also known as ground pines or creeping cedars, in the family Lycopodiaceae. Two very different circumscriptions of the genus are in use. In the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, Lycopodium is one of nine genera in the subfamily Lycopodioideae, and has from nine to 15 species. In other classifications, the genus is equivalent to the whole of the subfamily, since it includes all of the other genera. More than 40 species are accepted.

<i>Calamites</i> Extinct genus of vascular plants in the Order Equisetales

Calamites is a genus of extinct arborescent (tree-like) horsetails to which the modern horsetails are closely related. Unlike their herbaceous modern cousins, these plants were medium-sized trees, growing to heights of 30–50 meters. They were components of the understories of coal swamps of the Carboniferous Period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equisetidae</span> Subclass of ferns

Equisetidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns), a group of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like branches radiating at regular intervals from a single vertical stem.

<i>Equisetum sylvaticum</i> Species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae

Equisetum sylvaticum, the wood horsetail, is a horsetail native to the Northern Hemisphere, occurring in North America and Eurasia. Because of its lacy appearance, it is considered among the most attractive of the horsetails.

<i>Equisetum giganteum</i> Species of vascular plant in the family Equisetaceae

Equisetum giganteum, with the common name southern giant horsetail, is a species of horsetail native to South America and Central America, from central Chile east to Brazil and north to southern Mexico.

<i>Equisetum arvense</i> Species of horsetail

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. It has separate sterile non-reproductive and fertile spore-bearing stems growing from a perennial underground rhizomatous stem system. 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 is sometimes confused with mare's tail, Hippuris vulgaris.

<i>Equisetum bogotense</i> Species of fern

Equisetum bogotense, the Andean horsetail, is a herbaceous perennial that reproduces through spores. It has thicker, less bushy whorled branches, and a silica rich rhizomatous stem, which roots grow out of, under ground. This stem is a dull dark brown color with glabrous growth aside from the sheathed segments. The plant has a history as a traditional herbal remedy, and a study of its diuretic effects on humans showed significant increases in urinary sodium, potassium, and chloride. Human and animal trials of indicate that E. bogotense has "high" efficacy as a diuretic. It is used in several modern herbal supplements. The species epithet refers to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.

<i>Equisetum palustre</i> Species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae

Equisetum palustre, the marsh horsetail, is a perennial herbaceous pteridophyte belonging to the division of horsetails (Equisetopsida). It is widespread in cooler regions of North America and Eurasia.

<i>Equisetum pratense</i> Species of horsetail plant

Equisetum pratense, commonly known as meadow horsetail, shade horsetail or shady horsetail, is a widespread horsetail (Equisetophyta) and it is a pteridophyte. Shade horsetail can be commonly found in forests with tall trees or very thick foliage that can provide shade and tends to grow closer and thicker around streams, ponds and rivers. The specific epithet pratense is Latin, meaning pasture or meadow dwelling.

<i>Equisetum telmateia</i> Species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae

Equisetum telmateia, the great horsetail or northern giant horsetail, is a species of Equisetum (puzzlegrass) with an unusual distribution, with one subspecies native to Europe, western Asia and northwest Africa, and a second subspecies native to western North America. The North American subspecies is often simply but ambiguously called "giant horsetail", but that name may just as well refer to the Latin American Equisetum giganteum and Equisetum myriochaetum.

<i>Equisetum hyemale</i> Species of horsetail plant

Equisetum hyemale is an evergreen perennial herbaceous pteridophyte in the horsetail family Equisetaceae. It is native to Eurasia and Greenland.

<i>Diphasiastrum complanatum</i> Species of clubmoss plant from coniferous forests

Diphasiastrum complanatum, common names groundcedar, creeping jenny, or northern running-pine, is a species of clubmoss native to dry coniferous forests in colder northerly parts of the world. Under the original name Lycopodium complanatum, this was an inclusive superspecies that included a number of other species now known to be biologically separate. This plant is an evergreen, perennial pteridophyte. The spores are produced June to September.

<i>Equisetum variegatum</i> Circumpolar species of horsetail plant

Equisetum variegatum, commonly known as variegated horsetail or variegated scouring rush, is a species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae. It is native to the Northern Hemisphere where it has a circumpolar distribution.

<i>Equisetum scirpoides</i> Species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae

Equisetum scirpoides Michx., Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 281 (1803). 2 n = 216.The smallest of the currently occurring representatives of the genus Equisetum (horsetail).

<i>Diphasiastrum alpinum</i> Species of spore-bearing plant

Diphasiastrum alpinum, the alpine clubmoss, is a species of clubmoss. This plant is a glaucous scale-leaved perennial pteridophyte. In Finland, the spores are produced June to September. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his Flora Lapponica, 1737, from specimens obtained in Finland.

<i>Equisetum ramosissimum</i> Species of vascular plant in the horsetail family Equisetaceae

Equisetum ramosissimumDesf., known as branched horsetail, is a species of evergreen horsetail.

Equisetum ramosissimum var. huegelii, with synonyms including Equisetum debile and Equisetum huegelii, is a variety of Equisetum ramosissimum, a plant in the family Equisetaceae, found in parts of tropical Asia and China.

Equisetum dimorphum is an extinct horsetail species of the family Equisetaceae, and one of the oldest records of the genus Equisetum. It was found in rocks from the Lower Jurassic of Chubut, Argentina, among other plants as ferns, conifers and pteridosperms. Their remains consist of stems, leaves, strobili, and pagoda structures, which are preserved as impressions and casts. The combination of fine grained sediment, and the probable silica deposits in the epidermis of the plant, have managed to conserve not only its gross morphology, but also epidermal details not often present in this kind of preservation. This species was described in 2015 in Ameghiniana by a team led by Andres Elgorriaga, that included investigators of the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the Buenos Aires University.

References

  1. "Equisetum fluviatile L." Plants of the World Online . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Piirainen, Mikko; Piirainen, Pirkko; Vainio, Hannele (1999). Kotimaan luonnonkasvit[Native wild plants] (in Finnish). Porvoo, Finland: WSOY. p. 221. ISBN   951-0-23001-4.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Equisetum fluviatile, Water Horsetail, Pipes, River Horsetail, Swamp Horsetail, Prele Fluviatile, Sjofraken, Dyfraken, Elvesnelle, Dynd-Padderok, Jarvikorte, Tjarnelfting, Fergin, Teich-Schachtelhalm, Clois". 2005-02-07. Archived from the original on 2005-02-07. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  4. "Equisetum fluviatile". 2013-08-01. Archived from the original on 2013-08-01. Retrieved 2024-04-16.
  5. Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum. Vol. II (1st ed.). Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii. p. 1062.