Carried by 4 nurseries
View Availability at NurseryData provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria
View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora
Equisetum arvense, commonly known as the Field Horsetail or Common Horsetail, is a rather bushy perennial with a rhizomatous stem formation native to the northern hemisphere. These horsetails may have sterile or fertile stems. Sterile stems start to grow after the fertile stems have wilted. The sterile stems tend to be much taller and bushier, with the jointed segments being around one inch long with a diameter of about 1/20th of an inch. These segments contain one set of whorled, slender, erect branches each. Some stems can have as many as 20 segments and be as tall as 2-24 inches. The fertile stems tend to be half as tall as the sterile stems and also tend to be more succulent. This plant also has a very high diploid number - 216 (108 pairs of chromosomes) - which is roughly 5 times greater than the human diploid number (46).
Fern
2 - 24 in Tall
Upright
Fast
Spring
Water features or wet habitats
Deep Shade, Partial Shade
High, Moderate
Adaptable, tolerant of sand, loam and clay.
1*, 2*, 3*, 4*, 5*, 6*, 7*, 8*, 9*, 14*, 15*, 16*, 17*, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24
Moist, disturbed places
Chaparral, Foothill Woodland, Lodgepole Forest, Red Fir Forest, Subalpine Forest, Valley Grassland, Yellow Pine Forest, Wetland-Riparian