Field Horsetail, Equisetum Arvense

Field horse tail has been dated back through fossils as having a history of over 300 million years, occurring throughout the world with a wide distribution throughout the UK. It thrives within arable soils and grasslands but can also be found in meadows, hedge banks, gardens and wasteland. Horsetail can even accumulate heavy metals such as copper, lead, and zinc; amazingly it also accumulates gold within its tissues and has many other uses such as within medicine. Horsetail is toxic to livestock particularly horses with the species being poisonous both in a green state and dried.

Appearance and Identifying features

Flowers
Horse tail does not produce flowers.

Leaves
Light green in colour and abrasive when rubbed due to the presence of silica within the leaf structure. Very thin leaves with a scale like appearance fanning out from a simple main stem.

Stems
Stems have a rough texture due to deposits of silica. Each fertile stem may produce 100,000 spores but these only remain viable for around 48 hours and are therefore not thought to be their major mode of dispersal which is thought to be through the regeneration and distribution of tubers.

Rhizome
The rhizome system can be extensive both horizontally and vertically up to 1.5 metres. These rhizomes may produce numerous tubers (300- 1000 per m3 of soil); these tubers can grow into individual plants when separated from the rhizome systems and remain viable for long periods in soil. Therefore it is more important to avoid disturbance as horse tail can infest a hectare within 6 years within of introduction.

Horsetail treatment and Control

SES invasive species team have experience employing various site specific techniques with regards to time scales, costs and the sites ecological needs.