Field horsetail
Equisetum arvense L.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 61 cm
- wide
- —
Equisetaceae
Also called Common horsetail, Scouring rush, Mares tail, Field Horsetail
Formerly Allostelites arvensis, Equisetum alpestre, Equisetum arcticum, Equisetum boreale, and 7 more
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Rhizomatous geophyteKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Subarctic & Temp. Northern HemisphereKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 61 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -40 °C (USDA zone 3a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: spread, flowers, heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- Italian
- Coda cavallina, Equiseto dei campi
- Korean
- 쇠뜨기
- root
- EQUARV, Ձիաձետ դաշտային, popoot
- Finnish
- peltokorte, tunturipeltokorte
- Russian
- Хвощ полевой
- Japanese
- スギナ, ツクシ, 土筆
- French
- Prêle des champs
- Swedish
- Åkerfräken, vanlig åkerfräken, krypfräken
- Dutch
- Heermoes, Akkerpaardenstaart
- Czech
- přeslička rolní
- Greek
- Ιπουρίς η αρουραία, Ιππουρίδα των αγρών
- Portuguese
- cavalinha
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY 4.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Equisetum arvense (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.