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Other Names: scouring rushScientific Name: Equisetum spp.
Plant Family: Equisetaceae
Botanical Description: Two species of horsetail are herbaceous common weeds. Field horsetail (Equisetum arvense L.) stems are multi-branched and reach 18 inches tall; water horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile L.) stems are erect, produce fewer branches, and are 2 - 4 tall.Stems: tough, gritty and wiry, deeply ridged, hollow, jointed, and of two types: fertile, producing fruiting heads and having large, easily separable joints, not branched; and sterile or vegetative, having much smaller joints, with lateral branches in whorls around main stem
Leaves: small cup-shaped, toothed sheaths at the joints
Roots: deep rhizomes with both horizontal and vertical growth, lateral roots at nodes
Flowers: fruiting heads contain masses of tiny pale greenish spores in small pine cone-like structure, generally at stem ends
Seeds: actually tiny spherical spores
Seedling: short stems (see above)
Poisonous to livestock when eaten in large quantities. Can prevent mechanical harvest of cranberries in infested areas.
Reproduction: perennial, pine-cone-like fertile spore head matures in early springPropagation: spores (primitive seeds) and rhizomes
Dispersal: May enter cranberry beds with cuttings or sand.
State: Common throughout Wisconsin.National: Found throughout the continental U. S. with the exception of the Gulf Coast and southern states.
Origin: Some species of this genus are thought to originate in Eurasia.
Proliferates in wet, poorly drained, sandy, gravelly, or disturbed soils. Very competitive with cranberries, it often begins invasion along dikes, bed edges, and sandy bare patches in beds.
While scouting a cranberry bed for disease and insect pests, identify weed populations as they arise. Note the specie(s) of weed present as well as the population level relative to field area. Example: 20% horsetail, 30% boneset and joe-pye weed mix.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 1981. Weeds of the North Central States: North Central Regional Research Publication No. 281. College of Agriculture, Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletin 772. p. 11.
Gleason, H. A. 1952. Illustrated Flora of the United States and Adjacent Canada. Vol 1. Lancaster Press, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. pp. 13-16.
Kummer, L. D., T. G. Dittl, and T. D. Planer. 1993. Wisconsin Cranberry Weeds. Wisconsin Cranberry Board, Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. p. 17.
Lorenzi, H. J. and L. S. Jeffery. 1987. Weeds of the United States and Their Control. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, New York. p. 32.
McGregor, R. L. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. p. 42.
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