Myriad Botanical Gardens - Oklahoma City, USA

Common name: Horsetail, Scouring Rush

Family: Equisetaceae

Distribution: North America

IUCN Red list: Least concern

Hardiness: 4a

Life form: Perennial plant

Comments: Most commonly known as horsetail, this is a very primitive perennial plant with dark-green hollow, jointed or segmented stems with no true leaves. Stems can be found as either singular or have whorls of branches. however, only the single stems produce the cone-shaped spore producing body at the tip. Horsetail is normally found in either standing water, or wet areas. The stems actually contain silicon crystals (i.e. sand) embedded in its tissue. This particuarly trait gives it a common name of “scouring rush”.