Horsetail (Equisetum Arvense L.)
Field horsetail is widely distributed in the UK in meadows, gardens and on wasteland.
It grows strongly on arable and grassland but is a particular problem in fruit and other
perennial crops, and in nursery stock. Field horsetail is a common garden weed.
It flourishes on damp soil.
The plant is toxic to sheep, cattle and horses being poisonous in
both the green state and dried in hay.
The related marsh horsetail (E. palustre), a weed of wet, low-lying grassland,
is also poisonous to livestock.
