HORSETAIL (Equisetum)

This article appears in Volume V13, Page 739 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HOR-I25

HORSETAIL (Equisetum) , the sole genus of the botanical natural order Equisetaceae, consisting of a group of vascular cryptogamous plants (see PTERIDOPHYTA) remarkable for the vegetative structure which resembles in general

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

the genera of flowering plants Casuarina and Ephedra. They are herbaceous plants growing from an underground much-
4fejftt4ap jt.
From Strasburger's Lehrbtah der Botanik, by permission of Gustav Fischer.
Equisetum arvense.
A, Fertile shoot, springing B, C, Sporophyllsbearing sporangia,
from the rhizome, which which in C have opened.
also bears tubers; the D, Spore showing the two spiral
vegetative shoots have bands of the perinium.
not yet unfolded. F, Dry spores showing the ex-
F, Sterile vegetative shoot. panded spiral bands.
(A, F, reduced. B, C, D, E, enlarged.)
branched rootstock from which

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

slender aerial shoots which are green, ribbed, and

bear

at each node a whorl of leaves reduced to a toothed sheath. From the nodes

spring

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

whorls of similar but more slender branches. Some shoots are sterile while others are fertile, bearing at the apex the so-called fructificationa dense

oval

OVAL (Lat. ovum, egg)

, oblong conical or cylindrical spike, consisting of a number of shortly-stalked peltate scales, each of which has attached to its under surface a circle of spore-cases (sporangia)
which open by a longitudinal slit on their inner side. The spores differ from those of ferns in their outer coat (exospore) being split up into four club-shaped hygroscopic threads (elaters) which are curled when moist, but become straightened when dry. In most species the fertile and sterile shoots are alike, both being green and

leaf

LEAF (O. Eng. leaf, cf. Dutch loof, Ger. Laub, Swed. lof, &c.; possibly to be referred to the root seen in Gr. Ma-eta, to peel, strip)

-bearing, but in a few species the fertile are more or less different, e.g. in E. arvense the fertile shoots appear first, in the spring, and are unbranched and not green. Any portion of the underground rhizome when broken off is capable of producing a new plant; hence the difficulty of eradicating them when once established. There are 24 known species of the genus which is universally distributed.
The corn horsetail E. arvense, one of the commonest species, is a troublesome weed in clayey cornfields (see fig.). The fructification appears in

March

and April, terminating in short unbranched stems. It is said to produce diarrhoea in such cattle as eat it. The bog horsetail, E. palustre, is said to possess similar properties. It grows in marshes, ditches, pools and drains in meadows, and sometimes obstructs the flow of water with its dense matted roots. The fructification in this species is cylindrical, and in that of E. limosum, which grows in similar situations, it is ovate in outline. The largest British species, E. maximum, grows in wet sandy declivities by railway embankments or streams, &c., and is remarkable for its beauty, due to the abundance of its elegant branches and the alternately green and white

appearance

APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear)

of the

stem

STEM (O. Eng. staefn, stemn, cf. Du. stain, Ger. Stamm, &c., probably related to " staff ")

. In this species the fructification is conical or lanceolate, and is found in April on short, stout, unbranched stems which have large loose sheaths. Horses appear to be fond of this species, and in Sweden it is stored for use as winter

fodder

FODDER

. E. hyemale, commonly known as the Dutch rush, is much more abundant in Holland than in Britain; it is used for polishing purposes. E. variegatum grows on wet sandy ground, and serves by means of its fibrous roots to bind the sand together. The horsetails are remarkable for the large quantity of silica they contain in the cuticle (hence their value in polishing), which often amounts to half the

weight

WEIGHT

of the ash yielded by burning them; the roots contain a quantity of

starch

STARCH

.

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