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Meadow horsetail

Meadow horsetail

Equisetum pratense

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How common: Common

Meadow horsetail is a small, delicate horsetail of leafy, nutrient‑rich places across the northern hemisphere. Its green summer stems carry many fine side-branches and often bend gently at the tip. You can spot it in rich woods, by springs and streambanks, and on meadows and roadsides.

Did you know?

  • It makes two kinds of shoots: short pale spring shoots with a tiny cone, which later turn green and branch like the summer shoots.
  • The stem tip often bends slightly, unlike most other horsetails.

About the species

Identification

Perennial horsetail, 20–40 cm tall. Stems rough with 8–20 raised lines, upright but usually bending at the tip. At each joint there is a loose pale collar with 8–20 small brown, white‑edged teeth. Side-branches grow in circles at the joints: many, very thin, unbranched, spreading almost level and curving down at the ends; each branch’s first segment is about as long as the collar on the main stem. In spring there are short pale brown shoots with a small cone that later turn green. Finer and more often drooping-tipped than Field horsetail.

Plant group

Ferns, horsetails and clubmosses

Habitat

herb-rich forest

About the habitat

Grows in moist, nutrient‑rich woods and groves, spring areas, stream and river banks, meadows, slopes and road verges; also in northern mountain meadows and places where late snow lingers. Common throughout the country.

Sources

Photo: Igor Balashov, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6195805185

Text: Pinkka: Maatalouslajintuntemus - Sanikkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37720

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Saniaiset ja liekokasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37720

Text: Pinkka: Metsälajintuntemus - Sanikkaiset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37720

Text: Pinkka: BIO-514 Pohjois-Suomen putkilokasvit - Saniaiset ja liekokasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37720

Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Tunturit: tunturikoivikot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.37720

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

See also