''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 disc ...
, 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 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''
**
Mountain mare's tail, ''
Hippuris montana''
**
Fourleaf mare's tail, ''
Hippuris tetraphylla''
They are
aquatic plants 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 ...
s and
streams, 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 ...
.
References
*
*
External links
Distribution map, description, and picture of ''H. vulgaris''Hippuridaceae of Mongolia in FloraGREIF
Plantaginaceae
Plantaginaceae genera
{{Plantaginaceae-stub