# dwarf horsetail

*Equisetum scirpoides*

Because their cell walls accumulate high amounts of silica, these plants are naturally abrasive and were historically used by campers and indigenous peoples as 'scouring rushes' to clean pots.

- **Taxonomy:** Plantae › Tracheophyta › Polypodiopsida › Equisetales › Equisetaceae › Equisetum
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** stable
- **Biome:** forest
- **Habitat:** Moist coniferous forests, mossy tundra, bogs, and damp riverbanks
- **Diet:** Photosynthetic (sunlight, water, carbon dioxide, and soil minerals)
- **Range:** Canada, Northern United States, Scandinavia, Siberia, Greenland
- **Size:** 10 to 20 cm tall, with wiry stems only 1 mm in diameter
- **Lifespan:** Individual stems live 1-3 years, but clonal underground rhizome networks can survive for decades.
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Wetland drainage, logging of old-growth boreal forests, and climate change affecting arctic-alpine zones.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless. You can safely observe and touch this plant. It is non-toxic to touch, but should not be consumed as it contains high levels of abrasive silica and thiaminase, which can interfere with B-vitamins.

## About

Equisetum scirpoides ( dwarf scouring rush or dwarf horsetail ) Michx., Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 281 (1803). 2 n = 216. The smallest of the currently occurring representatives of the genus Equisetum (horsetail).

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/7304513e-2873-48ff-89f2-e2a7ffd34834
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/162373
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum scirpoides
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/171656873/medium.jpeg (Timothy McNitt, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.