Equisetum diffusum

Common Name: Himalayan Horsetail

Family: Equisetaceae

Synonym(s): E. mekongense C. N. Page

Country of Origin: Himalaya mountains from Simla (India) to Tibet

Description: This species, endemic in the Himalayas, is unlike all but E. bogotense in that the stems are seen above ground all year round.

Plants small to medium-sized. Rhizome creeping, erect, or ascending, blackish brown, nodes and roots with dense long yellowish brown trichomes or glabrous. Aerial stems annual, monomorphic, 10-30(-70) cm tall, 1-2 mm in diam. at middle, much branched; internodes 1.5-6 cm, green but those of lower 1-3 nodes blackish brown, not lustrous. Main stem 4-10-ridged; each side of ridge raised and forming edges reaching lower sheath teeth; each edge with a row of tubercles reaching sheath teeth; sheath tubes long, narrow, grayish green in lower portion, blackish brown in upper portion, with a deep groove going through back of sheath; sheath teeth 5-10, blackish brown, lanceolate, leathery, caudate at apex, persistent. Lateral branches slender, rigid, terete, 4-8-ridged; each side of ridge with edges and tubercles; sheath teeth 4-6, grayish green, deltoid, leathery, persistent. Strobilus terete, 1-9 cm, 4-8 mm in diam., apex blunt; stalk prolonged when mature and 1-3 cm.³

Accession #: 200202441

Accession Date: 2002-10-04 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 3108

Quantity: 1

Source: Chad Husby - FIU

Culture: May survive light freezes but best cultured in cool greenhouse. Does not die back, so also grows well in more tropical conditions.

Division: Ferns

Class: Polypodiopsida

Subclass: Equisetopsidae

Order: Equisetales

Family: Equisetaceae