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Field Horsetail

Field Horsetail

Equisetum arvense

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How common: Very common

Field Horsetail is a very common horsetail across the northern hemisphere. It makes two kinds of shoots: short, pale spring shoots with a cone at the tip, and later taller green shoots with many side-branches. You can see it in fields, gardens, roadsides and many damp places such as shores and ditches.

Did you know?

  • It produces separate spring cone-bearing shoots and summer green shoots.
  • Its rough, silica-rich stems were once used as a natural scouring brush.

About the species

Identification

10–40 cm tall. Spring shoots are 10–20 cm, pale brown, smooth, unbranched, with a small cone at the tip; they soon wither. Summer shoots are 20–40 cm, green, upright or trailing, with many stiff side-branches in rings that point slightly upward. Each joint has a tight little cup with 10–15 dark teeth. On the green shoots, the first section of each side-branch is clearly longer than the cup at its base—best seen low on the stem. This long first section helps tell it from similar horsetails.

Plant group

Ferns, horsetails and clubmosses

Habitat

yards and roadsides

About the habitat

Grows in fields, lawns and gardens, along roadsides and paths, on waste ground and in open woods; also on shores and other damp or wet soils. Common throughout the country.

Sources

Photo: MPF, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Equisetum arvense foliage.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Luonnonvaraiset lääkekasvit - Sanikkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37721

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37721

Text: Pinkka: Maatalouslajintuntemus - Sanikkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37721

Text: Pinkka: BIO-514 Pohjois-Suomen putkilokasvit - Saniaiset ja liekokasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37721

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37721

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltokorte

See also