The Horsetails: weeds or useful plants!

The main horsetail I’ll be writing about today is Equisetum arvense or the Field Horsetail otherwise known as Shavegrass, Bottlebrush and Pewterwort!

This plant often gets a lot of critiscism.

Especially if it grows in your own garden or on the allotment!

So I decided I must research the horsetail and write this post!

I read a nice chapter in one of my older books and start off with this and then list all its virtues on the next page.

The green sterile stems of the horsetail (courtesy of MPF Wikipedia)

Contents:

Equisetaceae or Horsetail Family

Extraordinary (extract from ‘Grandmother’s Secrets; her green guide to health from plants’  by Jean Palaiseul)

Equisetum arvense or Field Horsetail

E. hyemale or Rough Horsetail

Uses as from Wikipedia:

  • Domestic
  • Music
  • Medicinal
  • In cultivation
  • E. palustre or Marsh Horsetail
  • E. pratense or Shady Horsetail
  • E. ramosissimum or Branched Horsetail

E. sylvaticum or  Wood Horsetail

  • E. telmateia or Great Horsetail
  • E. variegatum or Variegated Horsetail
  • E. × ⁠trachyodon (E. hyemale × variegatum) or Mackay’s Horsetail
Continue reading “The Horsetails: weeds or useful plants!”