| Scientific Name: | Equisetum arvense |
| Common Name: | common horsetail |
| Family Name: | Equisetaceae |
| Origin: | Europe, North America |
| Hardiness Zone: | Zone 2: (-46 to -40 °C) |
| Plant Type: | Herbaceous perennial, Weed (horticultural) |
| Mature Size: | 0.2 - 0.4m x 4 - 5m (height x width) |
| Habit: | Spreading |
| Form: | Oval - vertical |
| Texture: | Fine |
| Landscape Uses: | Erosion control, Reclamation |
| Exposure: | Full sun, Filtered shade, Deep shade |
| Soil or Media: | |
| Leaves: | Simple, Whorled, Soft flexible, Glabrous, Linear, Entire |
| Flowers: | |
| Fruit: | Sporangium (spores), Brown |
| Key ID Features: | |
| Aggressive perennial weed with rhizomes and tubers; stems 10-75cm x 3-5mm wide, hollow with horizontal separations; branches whorled at nodes, needle-like but jointed, abrasive to touch (great for cleaning camping pots!); sheath crown at nodes with 10-16 teeth (the microphylls); spores released from strobilus on fertile shoot tip which emerge before the vegetative shoots. | |