They can survive in a wide range of conditions: wet and dry, hot and cold, where there's low soil oxygen, standing water, saline water, high amounts of metals such as copper, zinc, cadmium, and lead, and soil disturbance. Equisetums, with their complex underground networks of tough rhizomes, play an important role in stabilizing shorelines and stream banks.
The streamside barrier they create prevents soil from washing away during floods, allowing other bottomland plants to grow securely. Horsetails Scouring Rushes. Field Guide Aquatic Invertebrates. Butterflies and Moths. Land Invertebrates. Reptiles and Amphibians. Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines. Wildflowers, Grasses and Other Nonwoody Plants.
Scientific Name. Equisetaceae horsetails , in division Pteridophyta ferns and fern allies. Three species of horsetails occur in Missouri.
Common or field horsetail E. Its vegetative stems are green and have regular whorls of branches, while its fertile stems are pink to tan or white and are unbranched at the time when spores are shed.
Spores are shed April—May. The fertile stems last only a few weeks, until the strobili have matured and shed spores; then, they wither. When they wither, the sterile stems become more noticeable. This species is scattered nearly statewide, but it is most common north of the Missouri River.
It grows along rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, pastures, roadsides, and railroads; it also occurs in freshwater marshes, fens, wet prairies, and edges of bottomland forests. Common or winter scouring rush E. Its stems do not branch much, and they are rough to the touch.
Leaf sheaths have a wide, dark band near the base, usually with a white band in the middle, and a thin, dark band at the tip. The teeth sometimes persist at maturity. Its strobili have sharp-pointed tips and can be up to about 1 inch long. Spores are shed March—August. This is the most common equisetum in the state. It forms large, dense colonies along roadways and railroad banks. It is scattered nearly statewide, along stream banks, spring branches, rivers, lakes, ponds, ditches, roadsides, and railroads.
Smooth scouring rush E. Strobili tips are rounded, sometimes bluntly pointed. Spores are shed March—July. It is scattered nearly statewide along streams, spring branches, rivers, fens, roadsides, railroads, and sometimes in upland prairies, especially loess hill prairies. The larvae of the weevil and sawflies feed on the stems. Because the tough stems of Scouring Rush have coarse fibers and silica deposits, they are usually avoided by mammalian herbivores.
Because of its tall stems and tendency to form dense colonies, Scouring Rush provides excellent cover for various kinds of wildlife, including wetland birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.
Photographic Location: A low-lying area along a pond in Champaign, Illinois, and a drainage ditch near the Windsor Road Prairie of the same city. Comments: This is the largest horsetail in Illinois; it is somewhat unusual in having evergreen stems. I am always impressed by the large dense colonies that are often formed by the stems of this plant. These tough stems were used to scour pots, pans, and floors during pioneer days, hence the common name.
In spite of this common name, the Scouring Rush Equisetum hyemale affine is not a rush, but a horsetail. The horsetails are closely related to ferns and both were common during the Carboniferous period million years ago , when tree-sized horsetails and ferns occurred.
The coal deposits of Illinois were formed in large part from the ancestral plants of today's horsetails and ferns. At the present time, only Equisetum hyemale affine is recognized for North America.
However, some local populations of the Scouring Rush resemble Equisetum hyemale robustum or Equisetum robustum , which was recognized as native to this continent in the past. This latter variety or species is more tall and stout than Equisetum hyemale affine , and the teeth of its sheaths are supposed to be more persistent.
The Scouring Rush can be distinguished from other horsetails Equisetum spp. While it is legal to use the herbicide to control a pest not specified on the label as long as the weed is located in a labeled site , the manufacturer is not responsible for the performance of the product.
Non-cropland Repeated mowing or tillage can be used to control equisetum; however, no information is available on the optimum frequency and duration of disturbance. Studies with other creeping perennial weeds possessing deep reproductive structures suggest that at least two years of repeated disturbance would be required to eliminate an established patch.
Regrowth should be eliminated before it has an opportunity to replenish root energy reserves, thus remove new growth before it exceeds a height of 8 to 10 inches. Few of the herbicides commonly used in Iowa agriculture have much activity on equisetum. Care must be taken not to apply herbicides directly to standing water in ditches unless described on the product label.
MCPA, a phenoxy herbicide similar in activity to 2,4-D, is reported to provide suppression of horsetail, although horsetail is not listed on most MCPA labels. MCPA is cleared for use in grasslands and noncrop areas. Casoron 4G dichlobenil is cleared for use in non-crop areas and specifies horsetail on its label. Triclopyr Garlon, Remedy, etc. Telar chlorsulfuron is a sulfonylurea herbicide in the same family as Accent and Classic.
Telar is cleared for use in non-crop areas such as roadsides, fencerows, etc. At the higher rates it may cause significant injury to grasses present in these areas. Chlorsulfuron is a fairly persistent product, especially in high pH soils. Recent research by the University of Nebraska found Telar had the best activity of the herbicides evaluated on scouring rush. SedgeHammer contains halosulfuron, another sulfonylurea herbicide. It is labeled for field horsetail control at rates of 2.
SedgeHammer is cleared for use on turf and non-crop areas. Cropland The encroachment of equisetum into corn and soybean fields has become more common as roadside management has become less intensive and with the increased use of conservation tillage.
Eliminating equisetum from areas adjacent to the production field is probably the best control option, but this is easier said than done. Once the weed has become established in a field, tillage is unlikely to have much impact on the weed due to the depth of the rhizome system. Tillage may actually increase the problem by spreading rhizome pieces throughout the field.
Researchers in Canada have reported that products containing flumetsulam Python, Hornet have fair to good activity on horsetail.
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