Herb. No. 164 · Equisetaceae
Circumboreal wet ground — a Paleozoic cosmopolitan of ditches.
Native · Europe · North America · East Asia
Native Also grown
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Horsetail
Equisetum arvense
Medicinal herbsHarvestLookalikes
A living fossil of jointed green stems — silica folklore for hair and bone, and a weed that will own a wet bed.
Field horsetail is a Paleozoic leftover with no flowers. Traditional European use of the sterile summer stems is as a mineral, astringent tea. Identify E. arvense; palustris and some others are the wrong plant. Short courses. The roots will run a garden like a conspiracy.
Flavor
Green, grassy, a little metallic. Not a dessert.
Parts used
Sterile aerial stems
Helpful
- A deep-time plant you can actually identify
Cautions
- Invasive underground
- Wrong species
- Not a daily year-long tea
- Thiaminase if fresh in quantity