Equisetum hyemale

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Equisetum hyemale
Equisetum hyemale.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
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. Hippochaete
Species:
E. hyemale
Binomial name
Equisetum hyemale
L.
Synonyms

Hippochaete hyemalis(L.) Bruhin

Equisetum hyemale (commonly known as rough horsetail, [1] scouring rush, scouringrush horsetail and, in South Africa, as snake grass) is an evergreen perennial herbaceous pteridophyte in the horsetail family Equisetaceae. It is a native plant throughout the Holarctic Kingdom, found in North America, Europe, and northern Asia.

Contents

Distribution

In nature Equisetum hyemale grows in mesic (reliably moist) habitats, often in sandy or gravelly areas. It grows from between sea level to 2,530 metres (8,300 ft) in elevation. [2] They grow in groups of few. [3]

It is primarily found in wetlands, and in riparian zones of rivers and streams where it can withstand seasonal flooding. [2] It is also found around springs and seeps, and can indicate their presence when not flowing. Other habitats include moist forest and woodland openings, lake and pond shores, ditches, marshes and swamps.

Colony in open woodland, Cap Tourmente, Quebec Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine - Cap Tourmente Quebec.jpg
Colony in open woodland, Cap Tourmente, Québec

Description

Equisetum hyemale has vertical jointed reed-like stalks of medium to dark green. The hollow stems are up to 3 feet (0.91 m) in height. The stems are seldom branched. The stems themselves have conspicuous ridges, which are impregnated with silica. This makes the ridges feel rough and harsh. [4] [5] The stems are 0,5 cm thick. [3]

The tiny leaves are joined around the stem, forming a narrow black-green band or sheath at each joint. Like other pteridophytes, the plant reproduces by spores and does not produce flowers or seeds. [4]

The stems are generally deciduous in cold climates, [6] and remain during winter in warmer climates. It forms dense spreading clonal colonies [3] , in full to partial sun.

Taxonomy

Linnaeus was the first to describe scouring rush with the binomial Equisetum hyemale in his Species Plantarum of 1753. [7]

The subspecies Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine is endemic to North America. [8] [9]

Two Equisetum plants are sold commercially under the names Equisetum japonicum (barred horsetail) and Equisetum camtschatcense (Kamchatka horsetail). These are both types of E. hyemale var. hyemale, although they may also be listed as varieties of E. hyemale.

Uses

Dried plant, used as traditional polishing material in Japan. Dried Equisetum hyemale.jpg
Dried plant, used as traditional polishing material in Japan.

Domestic

The rough stems have been used to scour or clean pots, and used as sandpaper. [10] [11] The roughness comes from the high silica concentration. [3]

Boiled and dried Equisetum hyemale is used as traditional polishing material, similar to a fine grit sandpaper, in Japan.

Music
Dried stems used to shape clarinet reeds. Schuurbies Leblanc.jpg
Dried stems used to shape clarinet reeds.

The stems are used to shape the reeds of reed instruments such as clarinets or saxophones.

Medicinal

Some Plateau Indian tribes boiled the stalks to produce a drink used as a diuretic and to treat venereal disease. [12]

It is used as a homeopathic remedy. [4]

Cultivation

Equisetum hyemale cultivated as an ornamental plant, for use in contained garden beds and planters, and in pots. It is a popular "icon plant" in contemporary Modernist and Asian style garden design. Its tight verticality fits into narrow planting spaces between walkways and walls, and on small balconies.

It is also used as an accent plant in garden ponds and ornamental pools, and other landscape water features, planted in submerged pots.

The plant is sometimes sold in the nursery trade as "barred horsetail" or "Equisetum japonicum", but is different in appearance than Equisetum ramosissimum var. japonicum.

Invasiveness

The plant spreads very aggressively by underground runners, reaching under/past pavements and garden walls. Root barriers or large sunken planters ease containment in the garden. [4]

In South Africa and Australia, the plant is an invasive species of moist natural habitats. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fern</span> Class of vascular plants

The ferns are a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having specialized tissues that conduct water and nutrients and in having life cycles in which the branched sporophyte is the dominant phase.

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

Equisetum fluviatile, the water horsetail or swamp horsetail, is a vascular plant. It is a perennial herbaceous pteridophyte.

<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>Lycopodium clavatum</i> Species of vascular plant in the family Lycopodiaceae

Lycopodium clavatum is the most widespread species in the genus Lycopodium in the clubmoss family.

<i>Juncus effusus</i> Species of flowering plant in the rush family Juncaceae

Juncus effusus is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant species in the rush family Juncaceae, with the common names common rush or soft rush. In North America, the common name soft rush also refers to Juncus interior.

<i>Erythronium albidum</i> Species of flowering plant

Erythronium albidum, the white fawnlily or white trout lily, is a small herbaceous geophyte in the lily family. It is also known as adder's tongue, whitedog's-tooth violet, serpent's tongue, trout lily, deer tongue, creeklily and yellow snowdrop. Large numbers of this plant indicate that the woodland has never been subjected to heavy machinery, where it would be unable to grow due to soil compaction.

<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 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 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 laevigatum</i> Species of horsetail plant

Equisetum laevigatum is a species of horsetail in the family Equisetaceae. It is known by the common names smooth horsetail and smooth scouring rush. This plant is native to much of North America except for northern Canada and southern Mexico. It is usually found in moist areas in sandy and gravelly substrates. It may be annual or perennial. It grows narrow green stems sometimes reaching heights exceeding 1.5 meters. The leaves at the nodes are small, scale-like brownish sheaths and there are occasionally small, spindly branches. The stems are topped with rounded cone-shaped sporangia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lycopodium annotinum</span> Species of clubmoss in the family Lycopodiaceae

Spinulum annotinum, synonym Lycopodium annotinum, known as interrupted club-moss, or stiff clubmoss, is a species of clubmoss native to forests of the colder parts of North America, as well as Asia, and most of Europe. It is an evergreen perennial pteridophyte. The genus Spinulum is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016, but not in other classifications, which submerge the genus in Lycopodium.

<i>Juncus balticus <span style="font-style:normal;">subsp.</span> mexicanus</i> Species of aquatic plant

Juncus balticus subsp. mexicanus, synonym Juncus mexicanus, is a species of rush known by the common name Mexican rush. It is native to much of the west of the United States, Mexico and Central and South America. It is a plant of moist areas in a great number of habitats, from coast to desert to mountain and low to high elevation.

<i>Sambucus racemosa</i> Species of plant

Sambucus racemosa is a species of elderberry known by the common names red elderberry and red-berried elder.

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

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

References

  1. BSBI List 2007 (xls). Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland. Archived from the original (xls) on 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2014-10-17.
  2. 1 2 Jepson
  3. 1 2 3 4 Piirainen, Mikko; Piirainen, Pirkko; Vainio, Hannele (1999). Kotimaan luonnonkasvit[Native wild plants] (in Finnish). Porvoo, Finland: WSOY. p. 20. ISBN   951-0-23001-4.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Database: Equisetum hyemale (scouring rush)
  5. Webb, S.A., Parnell, J. and Doogue, D. 1996. Dundalgan Press (W. Tempest), Dundalk ISBN   0-85221-131-7
  6. Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1968 Excursion Flora of the British Isles Cambridge University Press ISBN   0 521 04656 4
  7. Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum. Vol. II (1st ed.). Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii. p. 1062.
  8. Jepson Manual treatment for Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine
  9. CalFlora Database: Equisetum hyemale subsp. affine
  10. Johnson, Derek; Linda Kershaw; Andy Mackinnon; Jim Pojar (1995). Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland (Digitized online by Google books). Lone Pine Publishing and the Canadian Forest Service. p. 281. ISBN   1-55105-058-7 . Retrieved 2009-01-25.
  11. Wilkinson, Kathleen (1999). Wildflowers of Alberta A Guideto Common Wildflowers and Other Herbaceous Plants. Edmonton Alberta: Lone Pine Publishing and University of Alberta. p. 34. ISBN   0-88864-298-9.
  12. Hunn, Eugene S. (1990). Nch'i-Wana, "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land. University of Washington Press. p. 353. ISBN   0-295-97119-3.
  13. "Lifeisagarden.co.za: "Invasive alien plants—Equisetum hyemale."". Archived from the original on 2011-06-27. Retrieved 2011-06-06.

Further reading