Fróðskaparrit

						48

FIELD HORSETAIL (EQUISETUM ARVENSE) AS A FOOD PLANT

ful to cattle and sheep, with the exception

oíE.fluviatile. Lightfoot (1789: 646) views

E. arvense as disagreeable to cows, but it

»... does not seem to affect horses or

sheep«. In a study of the ecology of E.

palustre in Finland, where it is sometimes,

but not always, regarded as noxious to the

cattle, Borg (1971) has pointed out that the

toxic effect should be referred to an alka-

loid called palustrin, which is developed,

not by the plant itself, but by a parasitic

fungus living in the plant in some areas.

According to Høeg (1974: 343) Norwe-

gian sheep and goats ate the spikes of E. ar-

vense during spring and both E. arvense

and the wood horsetail (Equisetum syl-

vaticum) were harvested as food for swine.

Bergvall, who has recorded the probably

best collection of ethnobotanical knowl-

edge from a specific area (Edsele, Ánger-

manland) in Sweden, tells that when the

cattle population increased in the villages

the supply of pasturage became insuffi-

cient. Children therefore had to gather es-

pecially E. sylvaticum as fodder for the an-

imals. E. palustre was a popular pasturage

for horses and it was also gathered for win-

ter supply. E. fluviatile was of course har-

vested as winter fodder for the cattle

(Bergvall 1972).

From India it is reported that the cattle

sometimes used E. arvense. Also E. debile

was used as cattle fodder (Islam, 1983:

863). North American Indians regarded E.

arvense as an excellent fodder, as the

Blackfoot Indians who utilized it as an au-

tumn and winter forage for their horses

(Johnston, 1970: 304).

Curiously enough, Rothof (1762: 116)

does not mention the tubers as useful for

human food - usually he does not have any

prejudices and gladly suggests almost any-

thing as edible (cf. Nelson and Svanberg,

1987) - he only mentions unspecified Eq-

uisetum roots as winter fodder for hogs.

Another Swede, Wallner (1742), suggests

the use of roots from E. fluviatilis as swine

fodder. The German ethnobotanist Treichel

(1894: 319) has recorded that the E. ar-

vense tubers were eaten by swine in Prus-

sia.

E. fluviatilis has been extensively used as

a hay-grass for fodder in northern Sweden

and in Norway. It is well-documented from

Vármland, Dalecarlia, Gástrikland, Háls-

ingland, Hárjedalen, Medelpad, Anger-

manland, and Lappland (Levander, 1914;

Campbell, 1948; Moberg, 1952; Svanberg,

1987a; Isaksson and Lindstrom, 1988) and

from the greater part of Norway (Høeg,

1974: 346-347).

Dye plant

In Norway, the stems of Equisetum syl-

vaticum have been used as a dye. It pro-

duced a greyish yellow colour. It can also

be stored without changing colour (May,

1978: 496). Also E. arvense and E.

pratense have been used as dye plants ac-

cording to 20th century Swedish experts on

vegetable dyeing. They are still recom-

mended in modern handbooks in plant dye-

ing. Depending on the mordant, they give

various yellow, greypink and yellowgreen

colours (Larsson, 1913: 49; Hansson and

Ryd, 1973: 37-38). Neither from Norway

nor from Sweden, have I so far found any

evidence in the folk-life records about a tra-