English: Horsetails; Horsetail family; Marestail; Puzzlegrass; Snake grass; Scouring-rush; Candock for branching species.
Name: from Latin equus meaning horse and seta meaning bristle.
German: Zinnkraut.
Spanish: Cola de caballo.
Dutch: Paardestaart familie.
Clades:
Equisetales;
Equisetidae;
Equisetanae;
Pteridophyta;
Plants.
Members: 1 genus, Equisetum; 20 species.
Content: silicates; mixed-linkage glucan: xyloglucan endotransglucosylase.
Use: for scouring, cleaning, polishing metals, tin, wood, cooking pots, drinking mugs, tin.
TaxonomyIn the Ppg1 classification
Equisetaceae is the only family in
Equisetales.
Plant theoryIn the
Plant theory Equisetaceae is a family in the order
Equisetales, in the Phylum
Pteridophyta.
Equisetaceae is placed in
Subphase 4. They have a very high content of Silicon.
BotanyFen; grass-like.
Stems: green; photosynthetic; hollow; jointed; ridged 3 to 6– to 40 ridges; whorls of branches at the nodes.[9] Unusually, the branches often emerge below the leaves in an internode, and grow from buds between their bases; with small white protuberances of abrasive silicates.
Leaves: arranged in whorls; fused into nodal sheaths; non-photosynthetic.
Spores: under sporangiophores in strobili, cone-like structures at the tips of some of the stems; homosporous.
Reproduction: by spores.
Dispersion: by four elaters that act as moisture-sensitive springs.
Stages Remedies10
Equisetum hyemale12
Equisetum arvense13
Equisetum palustre13
Equisetum telmateia16
Equisetum palustre