Great Horsetail
Equisetum telmateia
Horsetail family (Equisetaceae)
A living fossil
This plant has a very simple habit and no flowers. Reproduction is via spores that are borne on spikes on separate stalks. The stem is simple and consists of segments, which are easy to separate from one other. It is usually true of the plant world that the simpler it is, the older it is. This species is a member of a family that was already flourishing hundreds of millions of years ago and the remains of which are now found as fossils in coal.
Fossilised trees belonging to this family have been found with heights of up to 30 m. This species is a giant among their dwarf relatives of today with their stalks of only 1.8 m high. The shape resembles a horse’s tail. Equisetum comes from the Latin equus meaning horse and setum meaning brush or hair. The giant horsetail grows wild in the Netherlands in places where there is upwelling of calcareous groundwater.
Themes
Crown jewel in the Nijmegen Botanic Garden.
This plant gives a soft green coloured dye.
Can be eaten but is toxic in large quantities.
In various cultures this has been, and still is, eaten either raw or cooked. In Japan, for example, they eat the fertile stalks in the same way as the Dutch eat asparagus.
Stems are very rich in silica and are used for scouring and polishing metal and as a fine sandpaper.
Details
Description: | Herb, 30-180 cm tall, with dark brown, tuberous rhizomes; the ivory white, hollow stem is about 1 cm thick and bears green branches in dense whorls; leaves consist of small scales with pale green leaf sheaths that are fused into a single, nodal stem sheath up to 2 cm long; stem sheath is awl-shaped and brown with narrow, membranous-edged teeth. |
---|---|
Distributions: | In western and central europe and in the mediterranean region, eastwards to the caspian sea, also western north america |
Habitat: | Forests, forest margins, thickets, public places, roadside verges, grasslands, along railways and water courses, at the foot of dykes and on dried up sandbanks. |
Year cycle: | Perennial (trees and shrubs included) |
Hardiness: | -4 - 5 f (hardy - very cold winter) |
Flowering period: | Maart - mei |
Notes on fruits: | Strobilus up to 10 cm long; the blunt spike consists of small scales with sporangia containing the spores on the inside. |