What is the difference between field horsetail and scouring rush? A quick guide to tell them apart

Field horsetail is a small to medium-sized fern in the family Equisetaceae and the genus Equisetum, distributed in every province of China, while scouring rush is the whole plant of Equisetum ramosissimum in the family Equisetaceae and the genus Equisetum, and is a farmland weed in China. The two look fairly similar, and both are mostly found in moist grassland, cultivated land beside ditches, hillsides and meadows, so where exactly do field horsetail and scouring rush differ?

1. Different appearance

Field horsetail: The rhizome is obliquely ascending, both erect and creeping, black-brown, with nodes and roots densely covered in yellow-brown long hairs or smooth and hairless. The above-ground stems wither in the same year. The stems are of two types. The fertile stems sprout first in spring, 5-35 cm tall, 3-5 mm in diameter at the middle, with internodes 2-6 cm long, yellow-brown, without whorled stem branches, with inconspicuous ridges and dense longitudinal grooves; the sterile stems sprout later, up to 40 cm tall, with the middle of the main stem 1.5-3.0 mm in diameter and internodes 2-3 cm long, green, with many whorled branches, and branches below the middle of the main stem.

Scouring rush: The rhizome is black-brown, bearing a few yellow fibrous roots. The stem is erect, single or clustered, up to 70 cm tall, 1-2 mm in diameter, gray-green, with 6-20 ribs, rough, with 1 row of small wart-like protrusions; 1-4 rows of stomatal lines in the grooves; much branched below the middle, the branches usually bearing 2-5 branchlets.

2. Different habits

Field horsetail: Grows at altitudes of 0-3700 m in moist grassland, beside ditches, sandy land, cultivated land, hillsides and meadows.

Scouring rush: Scouring rush mainly grows at altitudes of 100-3300 m in wetlands, beside streams, by the sea, and at the edges of paddy fields, and is distributed everywhere in China, seen just about anywhere.

3. Different height

Field horsetail: Field horsetail has two kinds of above-ground stems, namely spore stems and vegetative stems. The spore stems are fleshy and unbranched, purple-brown, with long and large sheaths. The vegetative stems emerge after the spore stems wither, 0.6 m tall, with 6-15 longitudinal ridges

Scouring rush: The stem of scouring rush is divided into two parts: the rhizome and the above-ground stem.?? The rhizome is black, the above-ground stem is erect, branched at the base, with no distinction between vegetative stems and spore stems, about one meter tall, and the stem is hollow.

4. Different medicinal value

Field horsetail: The whole plant is used as medicine, with effects such as protecting the liver, lowering blood lipids, promoting urination and lowering blood pressure, and is often used for hematemesis, hemoptysis, blood in the stool, abnormal uterine bleeding, traumatic bleeding, strangury, and red eyes with corneal opacity,

Scouring rush: The whole plant is toxic, but it has the functions of dispelling wind and dissipating heat, and relieving muscle and reducing fever, and clinically it can treat condyloma acuminatum and psoriasis.

That is all for the difference between field horsetail and scouring rush. Friends living in the countryside can easily find these two plants and observe them directly, while friends living in the city can mainly tell them apart by whether there are jointed segments on the branches; if there are jointed segments, it is scouring rush.