Interesting Facts about Horsetails

• Horsetails are native to every continent except Antartica and Australasia.
• Horsetails date back to the Palaeozoic era which lasted from 541 to 252 million years ago. That means they were around before the dinosaurs!
• Horsetails are related to ferns.
• Equisetum is the only remaining species of horesetail.
• Equisetum is sometimes called a living fossil.
• Equisetum is also called horsetail, snake grass, scouring rush and puzzlegrass.
• Eating too many horsetails can kill horses.
• Horsetails evolved from plants that were 98 feet tall. Today’s horsetails are usually 1-2 feet although there is one in South America that grows to 32 feet..
• In many places, horsetails are considered invasive plants.
• Horsetails can be used to scrub metal.
• Horsetails were used to treat a variety of ailments during the Greek and Roman days.
• Some people use it to stop bleeding, as a diuretic or an astringent.
• Horsetails reproduce via spores rather than seeds.

For more information read:

Equisetum
Horsetail
Horsetail Benefits
Horsetail Facts
Horsetail Plant Genus
Horsetails- a Modern Herbal
Paleozoic

I originally wrote this post for the Pacific Northwest GreenFriends Newsletter, August 2017, page 25.