''Hippuris'', the mare's tail, was previously the sole genus in the family Hippuridaceae. Following genetic research by the

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) is an informal international group of systematic botanists who collaborate to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants (angiosperms) that reflects new knowledge about plant relationships disco ...

, it has now been transferred to the family

Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae, the plantain family, is a large, diverse family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales that includes common flowers such as snapdragon and foxglove. It is unrelated to the banana-like fruit also called "plantain." In older cl ...

, with Hippuridaceae being reduced to a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of Plantaginaceae. It includes one to three species depending on taxonomic interpretation. Some authorities only accept the first species of those listed below, treating the other two as synonyms of it: *

Common mare's tail ''Hippuris vulgaris'' (from Greek: ἵππος — ''horse'' and οὐρά — ''tail''), known as mare's-tail or common mare's-tail, is a common aquatic ecosystem, aquatic plant of Eurasia and North America ranging from Greenland to the Tibetan ...

, ''

Hippuris vulgaris ''Hippuris vulgaris'' (from Greek: ἵππος — ''horse'' and οὐρά — ''tail''), known as mare's-tail or common mare's-tail, is a common aquatic plant of Eurasia and North America ranging from Greenland to the Tibetan Plateau to Arizon ...

'' ** Mountain mare's tail, ''

Hippuris montana ''Hippuris'', the mare's tail, was previously the sole genus in the family Hippuridaceae. Following genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it has now been transferred to the family Plantaginaceae, with Hippuridaceae being reduced to ...

'' ** Fourleaf mare's tail, ''

Hippuris tetraphylla ''Hippuris'', the mare's tail, was previously the sole genus in the family Hippuridaceae. Following genetic research by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it has now been transferred to the family Plantaginaceae, with Hippuridaceae being reduced to ...

'' They are

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

s found in shallow

pond A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...

s and

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

s, both slow-moving and fast-flowing. This flowering plant is sometimes mistakenly identified as the non-flowering

horsetail ''Equisetum'' (; horsetail, snake grass, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of ferns, which reproduce by spores rather than seeds. ''Equisetum'' is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Eq ...

References

* *

External links

Distribution map, description, and picture of ''H. vulgaris''

Hippuridaceae of Mongolia in FloraGREIF
Plantaginaceae Plantaginaceae genera {{Plantaginaceae-stub