Equisetum hyemale

Scouring rush
Conservation status

Secure (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Pteridophyta
Class: Equisetopsida
Order: Equisetales
Family: Equisetaceae
Genus: Equisetum
Species: E. hyemale
Binomial name
Equisetum hyemale
L.
Synonyms

Hippochaete hyemalis (L.) Bruhin

Equisetum hyemale (rough horsetail or scouring rush), known in South Africa as snake grass[1], is a species of horsetail native to moist forests, forest edges and stream banks, swamps and fens throughout the Holarctic Kingdom.

Contents

Usage

The rough bristles have been used to scour or clean pots, used as sandpaper, as well as to shape the reeds of reed instruments such as clarinets or saxophones.[2][3]

Boiled and dried Equisetum hyemale is used as traditional polishing material like fine grit sandpaper in Japan.

Some Plateau Indian tribes boiled the stalks to produce a drink used as a diuretic and to treat venereal disease. [4]

Invasiveness

This species is potentially an invasive species in South Africa and Australia[5].

References

  1. ^ http://lifeisagarden.co.za/home/invasive-alien-plants-%E2%80%93-plant-me-instead/be-aware-of-invasive-snake-grass.html
  2. ^ Johnson, Derek; Linda Kershaw, Andy Mackinnon, Jim Pojar (1995) (Digitized online by Google books). Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland. Lone Pine Publishing and the Canadian Forest Service. pp. 281. ISBN 1-55105058-7. http://books.google.ca/books?id=Gpn0HAAACAAJ&dq=Aspen+Parkland. Retrieved 2009-01-25. 
  3. ^ Wilkinson, Kathleen (1999). Wildflowers of Alberta A Guideto Common Wildflowers and Other Herbaceous Plants. Edmonton Alberta: Lone Pine Publishing and University of Alberta. pp. 34. ISBN 0-88864-298-9. 
  4. ^ Hunn, Eugene S. (1990). Nch'i-Wana, "The Big River": Mid-Columbia Indians and Their Land. University of Washington Press. p. 353. ISBN 0-295-97119-3. 
  5. ^ http://lifeisagarden.co.za/home/invasive-alien-plants-%E2%80%93-plant-me-instead/be-aware-of-invasive-snake-grass.html

External links