Equisetum

 Scientific Name: Equisetum arvense
 Systematic Position:
Division: Pteridophyta
Class : Calamopsida
Order : Equisetales
Family: Equisetaeae
Genus: Equisetum
 Common name: Horsetail
 Equisetum Habit:
 Equisetum usually grows in wet or wet habitats and is particularly common on banks of
streams or irrigation channels.
 Equisetum plant bodies have an aerial part and an underground rhizome part.
 Rhizomes are horizontal, branched, and creep in nature.
 The aerial part is herbaceous and usually annual.
 The sporophytic plant body is divided into stems, roots and leaves.
 The stem is differentiated into nodes and internodes.
 Silica is deposited on the outer wall of the epidermal cells giving the characteristic rough
feeling.
 The leaves are small, simple, scale-like and arise in whorls.
 The roots are adventitious and grow downwards.
 Source: University Botany-I by S.M. Reddy.