''Equisetum palustre'', the marsh horsetail, is a plant species belonging to the division of horsetails (

Equisetopsida Equisetidae is one of the four subclasses of Polypodiopsida (ferns), a group of vascular plants with a fossil record going back to the Devonian. They are commonly known as horsetails. They typically grow in wet areas, with whorls of needle-like ...

). It is widespread in cooler regions of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...

Description

''Equisetum palustre'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

cryptophyte, growing between 10 and 50 centimeters (4" to 20"), in rare cases up to one meter (3'). Its fertile

shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...

s, which carry

ears An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists o ...

, are evergreen and shaped like the sterile shoots. The rough, furrowed stem is one to three mm in diameter with usually eight to ten ribs, in rare cases, four to 12. It contains whorled branches. The tight-fitting sheaths end in four to 12 teeth. The lower sheaths are dark brown and much shorter than the sheaths of the main shoot. The central and

vallecula Vallecula is an anatomic term for a crevice, depression, or furrow in something.Vallecula
at

r canals are about the same size, but the carinal channels are much smaller. The central channels measure about one sixth of the diameter of the stem. The

spore In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival, often for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, f ...

s are spread by the wind (

anemochory In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

) and have four long ribbon-like structures attached to them. They sit on

strobili A strobilus (plural: strobili) is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem. Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to th ...

which are rounded on the top. Marsh Horsetails often form subterranean runners and

tuber Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...

s, with which they also can proliferate

vegetatively Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

Ecology

''Equisetum palustre'' is green from spring to autumn and grows

s from June to September. It grows primarily in nutrient-rich

wet meadow A wet meadow is a type of wetland with soils that are saturated for part or all of the growing season. Debate exists whether a wet meadow is a type of marsh or a completely separate type of wetland. Wet prairies and wet savannas are hydrologically ...

s. It is found in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

circumpolar Circumpolar may refer to: * Antarctic region ** Antarctic Circle ** the Antarctic Circumpolar Current ** Subantarctic ** List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands ** Antarctic Convergence ** Antarctic Circumpolar Wave ** Antarctic Ocean * Arctic ...

region up to mountainous heights. Its distribution is declining. A specific

plant association A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...

in which ''E. palustre'' is found is the ''Juncus subnodulosus''-''Cirsium palustre'' fen-meadow.

Toxicity

''Equisetum palustre'' is

poisonous Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

to mammals, most often reported as potentially fatal to horses, as it contains alkaloids

palustrine Palustrine wetlands include any inland wetland that contains ocean-derived salts in concentrations of less than 0.5 parts per thousand, and is non-tidal. The word ''palustrine'' comes from the Latin word ''palus'' or marsh. Wetlands within this ca ...

and palustridiene, which destroy vitamin B₁. According to Wink, Equisetum Palustre also contains thiaminase

enzymes Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecule ...

. It's also known to contain lesser amounts of nicotine. Many thiaminases, however, are denatured by heat, and some sources refer ''Equisetum palustre'' safe to eat in moderate amounts when properly cooked.

Taxonomy

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

was the first to

describe Shneur Hasofer is a Hasidic musician known as DeScribe. Hasofer's musical style has been characterized as "Hasidic hip-hop," "Hasidic rap" and "Hasidic R&B". Background Hasofer was born to a Chabad Hasidic family in Melbourne, Australia. Hasof ...

marsh horsetail with the

binomial Binomial may refer to: In mathematics *Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms * Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials *Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition ...

''Equisetum palustre'' in his ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'' of 1753.

References

Flora of North America: ''Equisetum palustre''
* C. Michael Hogan. 2009
''Marsh Thistle: Cirsium palustre'', GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. N. Strömberg
* . 2009

External links

* Walkowiak R. J.,
Equisetum palustre L.
', IEA Collection of Equisetum, 2019 {{Taxonbar, from=Q21122 palustre Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Flora of North America Flora of Europe Flora of Asia