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Water Horsetail

Equisetum fluviatile L.

Associations

provided by BioImages, the virtual fieldguide, UK
In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
seriate or widely scattered, covered pycnidium of Ascochyta coelomycetous anamorph of Ascochyta equiseti is saprobic on locally bleached, dead, dry stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 2-4
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / feeds on
Bagous collignensis feeds on Equisetum fluviatile

Plant / resting place / within
pupa of Bagous lutulentus may be found in stem (upper) of Equisetum fluviatile

Foodplant / open feeder
larva of Dolerus cothurnatus grazes on frond of Equisetum fluviatile

Foodplant / saprobe
scattered apothecium of Gorgoniceps boltonii is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 4-5

Foodplant / saprobe
short-stalked apothecium of Hymenoscyphus equisetinus is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile

Foodplant / saprobe
long-stalked apothecium of Hymenoscyphus pileatus is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 10-11

Foodplant / saprobe
apothecium of Hymenoscyphus rhodoleucus is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 4-9

Foodplant / miner
larva of Liriomyza virgo mines stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
short-stalked apothecium of Psilachnum inquilinum is saprobic on black, dead stem (base) of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 3-10

Foodplant / saprobe
loosely gregarious, covered, black pycnidium of Rhabdospora coelomycetous anamorph of Rhabdospora detospora is saprobic on stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 4

Foodplant / saprobe
immersed pycnidium of Stagonospora coelomycetous anamorph of Stagonospora equiseti is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 8

Foodplant / saprobe
scattered, immersed, globose, brown pycnidium of Stagonospora coelomycetous anamorph of Stagonospora equisetina is saprobic on dead stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 9

Foodplant / saprobe
sometimes in rows acervulus of Titaeospora coelomycetous anamorph of Titaeospora equiseti is saprobic on dying, locally reddish-brown stained stem of Equisetum fluviatile
Remarks: season: 3-4

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Description

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Aerial stems monomorphic, green, unbranched or branched, 35--115 cm; hollow center large, to 9/10 stem diam.; vallecular canals absent. Sheaths squarish in face view, ca. 4--10 × 4--10 mm; teeth black, occasionally with narrow white border, 12--24, narrow, 2--3 mm. Branches when present only from midstem nodes, spreading, hollow, ridges 4--6, valleys rounded; 1st internode of each branch shorter than subtending stem sheath; sheath teeth narrow. 2 n =216.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 2 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
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Distribution

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St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska including the Aleutian Islands, Conn., Del., D.C., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia s to n Italy, China, Korea, Japan.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 2 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
original
visit source
partner site
eFloras

Habitat

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Cones maturing in summer. Standing in water, in ponds, ditches, marshes, swales; 0--1500m.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 2 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
original
visit source
partner site
eFloras

Synonym

provided by eFloras
Equisetum limosum Linnaeus
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 2 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
original
visit source
partner site
eFloras

Equisetum fluviatile

provided by wikipedia EN

Equisetum fluviatile, the water horsetail or swamp horsetail, is a vascular plant that 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. It is a perennial herbaceous species, growing 30–100 cm (rarely 140 cm) tall with erect dark green stems 2–8 mm in diameter, smooth, with about 10–30 fine ridges. At each joint, the stem has a whorl of tiny, black-tipped scale leaves 5–10 mm long. 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. The water horsetail has the largest central hollow of the horsetails, with 80% of the stem diameter typically being hollow.

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.

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 blunt-tipped cones at the tips of some stems. The spore cones are yellowish-green, 1–2 cm long and 1 cm broad, with numerous scales in dense whorls.

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.

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.

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.

Uses

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. Early spring shoots were eaten. 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. Rootstocks and stems are sometimes eaten by waterfowl. Horsetails absorb heavy metals from the soil, and are often used in bioassays for metals.

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.

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.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Equisetum fluviatile L." Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  2. ^ Linnaeus, C. (1753). Species Plantarum. Vol. II (1st ed.). Stockholm: Laurentii Salvii. p. 1062.

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Equisetum fluviatile: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Equisetum fluviatile, the water horsetail or swamp horsetail, is a vascular plant that 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. It is a perennial herbaceous species, growing 30–100 cm (rarely 140 cm) tall with erect dark green stems 2–8 mm in diameter, smooth, with about 10–30 fine ridges. At each joint, the stem has a whorl of tiny, black-tipped scale leaves 5–10 mm long. 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. The water horsetail has the largest central hollow of the horsetails, with 80% of the stem diameter typically being hollow.

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.

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 blunt-tipped cones at the tips of some stems. The spore cones are yellowish-green, 1–2 cm long and 1 cm broad, with numerous scales in dense whorls.

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.

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.

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.

license
cc-by-sa-3.0
copyright
Wikipedia authors and editors
original
visit source
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wikipedia EN