What’s Coming Up In The Garden, 73: equisetum or horsetail

 You can guess why I love this plant, maybe, and I’ve been thinking about how to bring it to November Hill. I learned that it is very invasive and not something I want where equines can eat it, so I’ve put it in with the water garden container with the pitcher plants. We’ll see how it does there. 

It’s a very appealing and unusual plant, and I’m curious to see how it looks through the entire year.

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Species Native to Missouri

Common Name: scouringrush horsetail  

Type: Rush or Sedge

Family: Equisetaceae

Native Range: Eurasia, North America

Zone: 4 to 9

Height: 2.00 to 4.00 feet

Spread: 1.00 to 6.00 feet

Bloom Time: Non-flowering

Bloom Description: Non-flowering

Sun: Full sun to part shade

Water: Medium to wet

Maintenance: Medium

Suggested Use: Water Plant, Naturalize, Rain Garden

Flower: Insignificant

Tolerate: Heavy Shade

Garden locations

Culture

Best grown in medium to wet soils in full sun to part shade. Tolerates an extremely wide range of soils, however. Will grow in up to 4” of standing water. Spreads to form large colonies in the wild. Homeowners are often more interested in learning how to eradicate this plant from the landscape than how to grow it. It is a very aggressive plant which, if not preemptively restrained, will spread aggressively by branched, creeping rhizomes. Once established, it can be extremely difficult to remove by digging because its rhizomes spread wide and deep, and any small section of rhizome left behind can sprout a new plant. Consider using soil barriers to restrict growth. In water gardens or tub gardens, plant in pots at water bottom to contain growth (both height and spread).

Noteworthy Characteristics

Equisetum hyemale, commonly called scouring rush or rough horsetail, is a non-flowering, rush-like, rhizomatous, evergreen perennial which typically grows 3-5’ tall and is native to large portions of Eurasia, Canada and the U.S., including Missouri. It typically occurs in wet woods, moist hillsides and peripheries of water bodies (lakes, rivers, ponds). This species features rigid, rough, hollow, vertically-ridged, jointed-and-segmented, bamboo-like, dark green stems (to 1/2” diameter at the base) which rise up from the plant rhizomes. Each stem node (joint) is effectively marked by a whorl of tiny, stem-clasping, scale-like leaves which are fused into an ash-gray sheath (1/4” long) ending in a fringe of teeth. Teeth are usually shed during the growing season. Each sheath is set off and accentuated, both above and below, by thin, stem-ringing, black bands. Photosynthesis is basically carried on by the stems of this plant. Vegetative and fertile stems are alike in this species, with some vegetative stems bearing, at the stem tips, pine cone-like fruiting heads (to 1” long) which contain numerous spores. The evergreen stems are particularly noticeable in winter and can provide significant interest to the landscape. Stems have a high silica content and were used by early Americans for polishing pots and pans, hence the common name of scouring rush. Equisetum is not a rush however. Nor is it a fern. Equisetum is the single surviving genus of a class of primitive vascular plants that dates back to the mid-Devonian period (350 + million years ago). Today, the equisetums are categorized as fern allies in large part because they, like the ferns, are non-flowering, seedless plants which reproduce by spores.

Genus name comes from the Latin words equus meaning a horse and seta meaning a bristle.

Specific epithet means of winter or flowering is winter. Most probably for its winter interest as Equisetum is not a flowering plant.

Problems

No serious insect or disease problems. Very aggressive spreader.

Uses

Water gardens. Japanese gardens. Bog gardens. Stream or pond peripheries. Good plant for covering a wet low spot where nothing else will grow. Interesting plant for large patio containers. Provides strong vertical accent to any planting.