Horsetail is a perennial plant that is found in or near watery areas such as marshes, streams, or rivers. Horsetail grows in temperate northern hemisphere areas of Asia, Europe, North America, and North Africa. It flourishes where it can root Read more…
Nettle herb contains high levels of vitamins and minerals essential for a healthy skin and coat. Nettles are primarily diuretic and blood cleansing therefore often used for laminitis and arthritis to clear congestion. It is also excellent for horses competing Read more…
Nettles are primarily diuretic and blood cleansing therefore often used for laminitis and arthritis to clear congestion. It is also excellent for horses competing in very strenuous or power demanding activities. How much nettle do you give a horse? As Read more…
Its stems also are jointed, can easily be separated into sections, and have siliceous ridges that make it rough to the touch. In a pinch campers have been known to clean frying pans with these weeds, a use reflected in Read more…
Pokeweed produces clusters of green berries, which mature to a dark purple color. The roots are the most toxic part of the plant, but horses can also be poisoned from the leaves and stems. A toxic compound, called phytolaccotoxin, can Read more…
Horsetails, like other vascular plants, display an alternation of generations: an asexual phase, represented by a sporophyte (the horsetail plant), and a sexual phase, the gametophyte, an inconspicuous, delicate, green plant. What do ferns and horsetails have in common? Horsetails Read more…
Bracken fern contains the enzyme thiaminase, which inactivates thiamine (vitamin B1). Inactivation of thiamine results in a deficiency that may cause neural dysfunctions in the horse. Horses will typically avoid eating Bracken fern since it is fairly unpalatable. How poisonous Read more…
Where does horsetail grow? Horsetail especially loves moist, marshy areas but it can also be found in fields, forests, gravely soil, on slopes and even in the cracks of cement sidewalks. When the small tan-colored horsetail shoot first emerges from Read more…
Equisetum plants (horsetails) reproduce by producing tiny spherical spores that are typically 50 µm in diameter. The spores have four elaters, which are flexible ribbon-like appendages that are initially wrapped around the main spore body and that deploy upon drying Read more…
The significant deposits of silica within cell walls is supported by the known presence of callose in cell walls of horsetails [12, 15, 25, 26]. What is unique about the structure of horsetails? Horsetail has several distinguishing characteristics. One such Read more…