Equisetum fluviatile (Water Horsetail)

Equisetum fluviatile

Equisetum fluviatile L.

Equisetum fluviatile L. var. limosum (L.) Gilbert

Equisetum limosum L.

Water Horsetail, Swamp Horsetail

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Equisetophyta	Horsetails, which date back to the Devonian era
Class	Equisetopsida	Horsetails, spore-bearing plants related to ferns
Order	Equisetales	Living horsetails (most are extinct)
Family	Equisetaceae	Living horsetails
Genus	Equisetum	Living horsetails
Species	fluviatile	Water horsetail

About plant names...

Water horsetail is the smoothest of the horsetails. Fluviatile is Latin for “pertaining to rivers,” and this horsetail is common in wet, marshy areas. Like other horsetails, water horsetails have a remarkably high silica content, making them abrasive enough for scouring or sanding.

Identification: Water horsetails occur in dense colonies, where they may be unbranched or multiply branched. If branches are present, they are less than 3" (7.6 cm) long. Each segment boundary is ringed by a series of tiny, black-tipped scale leaves. The stems of water horsetails are smoother than those of marsh horsetails. See Equisetum for a comparison chart.

From Britton, Nathaniel Lord, and Brown, Addison, An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions, 1913, p. Vol. 1: 41

By Luc Viatour

References:

Cobb, Boughton, Farnsworth, Elizabeth & Lowe, Cheryl, Peterson Field Guides: A Field Guide to Ferns and Their Related Families of Northwestern and Central North America, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005, p. 342

Online References:

Equisetum fluviatile at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Equisetum fluviatile at the Washington State Department of Ecology

Equisetum fluviatile on Wikipedia

Equisetum fluviatile on Plants for a Future, a resource and information centre for edible and otherwise useful plants

Equisetum fluviatile at the University of Wisconsin's Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium

Equisetum fluviatile on eFloras

4/23/2016 · Big Tree/Porcupine Trail, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, MA ID is uncertain

Equisetum fluviatile description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 12 Oct 2018.

4/23/2016 · Big Tree/Porcupine Trail, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, MA ID is uncertain

5/23/2009 · Oak Creek Trail, AZ
≈ 33 × 50" (84 × 126 cm)

5/25/2008 · Memphis, TN · By Tim Chandler

These must have been mowed last fall. · 4/6/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton, MA
≈ 14 × 9" (35 × 23 cm) ID is uncertain

4/6/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton, MA
≈ 12 × 12" (29 × 29 cm) ID is uncertain

4/7/2010 · Nashua River Rail Trail, Groton, MA
≈ 17 × 14" (44 × 35 cm) ID is uncertain

9/2/2007 · OR
≈ 33 × 22" (82 × 55 cm)

Range:

About this map...