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| Practical ecological knowledge for the temperate reader. |
Hippuris Sp. - Mare's-Tail
Family: Plantaginaceae
Hippuris vulgaris
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Hippuris vulgaris
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Perennial herb from rhizome, emergent aquatic, glabrous; rooting at nodes; wind-pollinated. Stem: ± erect, unbranched. Leaf: in whorls of 6–12, sessile, linear to elliptic, entire. Inflorescence: flower 1 in upper axils, ± sessile. Flower: inconspicuous, generally bisexual (or staminate proximal to pistillate); calyx a minute rim at ovary top; petals 0; stamen 1, off center on top of ovary; ovary inferior, chamber 1, style 1, off-center, ± = stamen, slender, in groove between anther sacs, ± entirely stigmatic. Fruit: achene or thin-walled drupe.
2 species. (Greek: horse tail) [Olmstead & Reeves 1995 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 82:176–192] In Hippuridaceae in TJM (1993); now, along with Callitrichaceae and others, treated in Plantaginaceae. [Jepson]
Local Species;
- Hippuris montana - mountain mare's-tail [E-flora]
- Hippuris tetraphylla - four-leaved mare's-tail [E-flora]
- Hippuris vulgaris - common mare's-tail [E-flora][PCBC]
Key to the Species and Taxonomic Notes
1. Stems 1.5-8 (10) cm tall, less than 1 mm wide; leaves 2-6 (10) mm long.......................H. montana
1. stems 10-40 cm tall, 1.5-5 mm wide; leaves 6-30 (50) mm long.
2. Leaves elliptic to oblong or egg-shaped, and blunt-tipped, 6-15 mm long, 2-8 mm wide, 4-6 (8) per whorl.............................H. tetraphylla
2. Leaves linear and slender-tipped, 6-30 (50) mm long, 1-2 mm wide, (6) 8-12 per whorl...............................H. vulgaris [E-flora]
Hippuris montana - mountain mare's-tail
Family: Plantaginaceae (Mare's-tail family)(Previously in Hippuridaceae) [E-flora]
Identification
General:
Perennial, semi-aquatic or terrestrial herb from a slender creeping rhizome; stems erect, simple, glabrous, 0.5 mm wide, 1.5-10 cm tall. [IFBC-E-flora]
Leaves:
Stem leaves 5-8 per whorl, linear, unstalked, 2-6 (10) mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, glabrous, pointed at the tips, stiff above water but limp underwater. [IFBC-E-flora]
Flowers:
Inflorescence of tiny, single, inconspicuous, imperfect and occasionally perfect flowers in several whorls in the axils of the leaf whorls, stalked below, unstalked in the upper leaf axils, the flowers mostly unisexual, with male flowers below the female flowers; petals lacking; anthers 0.5 mm long; mature ovaries 1 mm long. [IFBC-E-flora]
Fruits:
Nutlets, about 1 mm long; seeds 1. [IFBC-E-flora]
Habitat / Range
Shallow streams, ponds, wet to moist meadows, streambanks and seepage areas in the upper montane to alpine zones; infrequent in coastal BC, rare in S BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains; amphiberingian, N to AK, YT and NT, E to AB and S to NW WA; E. Asia. [IFBC-E-flora]
Origin Status:
Native [E-flora]
Ecological Indicator Information
A shade-intolerant, subalpine, Asian and Western North American forb distributed more in the Pacific than the Cordilleran region. Occurs in alpine tundra and subalpine boreal climates on very moist to wet, nitrogen-medium soils. Its occurrence increases with increasing latitude, and decreases with increasing continentality. Common in highelevation, heath-like or lowshrub communities on watershedding and water-receiving sites. Associated with Cassiope mertensiana, Luetkeapectinata, and Phyllodoce empetriformis. Characteristic of subalpine communities.
[IFBC-E-flora]
Hippuris tetraphylla - four-leaved mare's-tail
Family: Plantaginaceae (Mare's-tail family)(Previously in Hippuridaceae) [E-flora]
This is a blue-listed taxon in B.C. [E-flora]
- Origin Status: Native [E-flora]
Identification
- General: Perennial, aquatic, emergent herb from a creeping rhizome; stems erect, simple, glabrous, 1.5-5 mm wide, 10-40 cm tall. [IFBC-E-flora]
- Leaves: Stem leaves 4-6 (8) per whorl, linear to oblong, glabrous, rounded at the tips, 6-15 mm long, 2-8 mm wide. [IFBC-E-flora]
- Flowers: Inflorescence of tiny, single, inconspicuous, imperfect and occasionally perfect flowers in several whorls in the axils of the leaf whorls, stalked below, unstalked in the upper leaf axils, the flowers mostly bisexual; petals lacking; anthers 0.5 mm long; mature ovaries 2 mm long. [IFBC-E-flora]
- Fruits: Nutlets, about 2 mm long; seeds 1. [IFBC-E-flora]
- Habitat / Range: Saline or brackish marshes, tide flats and shallow ponds in the lowland zone; rare in coastal BC; N to AK, YT and NT and E to Labr. [IFBC-E-flora]
Edible Uses
The whole plant (except the roots and submerged stems) is gathered from ponds right after
freeze-up by skimming the ice surface with a shovel or rake. Plants can then be put on tarps to
dry and store in bags for the winter. Other people gather them in the spring from the lakes just
when the ice is lifting. Freezing makes them soft and easier to cook. The plant is not eaten when
green in the summer because it is too bitter. Rabbits eat them when they are green, but to people,
these summer plants taste bitter like cungak, fish bile. The cooked plant can be put in soup with
seal blood and fish eggs (such as tomcod roe) or in akutaq. They can also be eaten with
qayussaaq, a kind of aged fish that has been dried and boiled. One elder said the plants are a good source of fiber. [Jernigan EYK]
- Shoots: Hippuris tetraphylla has been used In similar fashion In the Northwest. See H. vulgaris & Hippuris sp[Harrington]
- Leaves: Eskimo, Alaska Food (Vegetable)-Small, young leaves eaten as greens. [UMD-Eth-1]
Cultivation
- Animal Food: This species is eaten by geese as well as hares.[Jernigan EYK]
Common Mare's-tail - Hippuris vulgaris
- Family: Plantaginaceae (Mare's-tail family) (Previously in Hippuridaceae) [E-flora]
- Other Names: Common Marestail.[PFAF]
Description
- Origin Status: Native [1.3]
- General: Perennial, aquatic, emergent herb from an extensive creeping rhizome; stems erect, simple but sometimes shortly branched from the lower nodes, glabrous, 1.5-5 mm wide, 5-40 cm tall, above water partly. [1.3]
- Leaves: Stem leaves 8-12 per whorl, linear, glabrous, pointed at the tips, 6-35 mm long, 1-2 mm wide. [1.3]
- Flowers: Inflorescence of tiny, mostly bisexual flowers in several whorls in the axils of the leaf whorls, stalked below, unstalked in the upper leaf axils; anthers 1.2 mm long; mature ovaries about 2 mm long. [1.3]
- Fruits: Nutlets, 2-2.5 mm long; seeds 1. [1.3]
- Habitat: Streamsides, lake shores and shallow ponds in the lowland, steppe and montane zones.[1.3] Pond margins, ditches etc, preferring base-rich water[17]. [PFAF]
- Range: common throughout BC, less frequent along the coast; circumpolar, N to AK, YT and NT, E to Labr. and S to IN, NB, NM and CA; Chile, Argentina and Eurasia.[1.3] Most of Europe, including Britain, south and east to N. Africa, western and northern Asia.[PFAF]
Hippuris vulgaris is a PERENNIAL growing to 0.5 m (1ft 8in). It is in flower from Jun to July. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Wind.[PFAF]
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers wet soil and can grow in water.[PFAF]
Key to the Species and Taxonomic Notes
1. Stems 1.5-8 (10) cm tall, less than 1 mm wide; leaves 2-6 (10) mm long.......................H. montana
1. stems 10-40 cm tall, 1.5-5 mm wide; leaves 6-30 (50) mm long.
2. Leaves elliptic to oblong or egg-shaped, and blunt-tipped, 6-15 mm long, 2-8 mm wide, 4-6 (8) per whorl.............................H. tetraphylla
2. Leaves linear and slender-tipped, 6-30 (50) mm long, 1-2 mm wide, (6) 8-12 per whorl...............................H. vulgaris [1.3]
Edible Uses
- Whole Plant: Whole plant used to make soup.[UMD-Eth-1] Plant added to seal blood soup and tomcod liver soup.[UMD-Eth-2] Leaves, stems and roots used by Eskimos as a food source. Harvested in summer or fall. Stored for later use. [Helaine_selin]
- Harvesting: In the early spring the upper stems of this plant are often gathered from the top of the ice areas where the plant had been growing in shallow water the previous year. They are considered to be quite flavorful and are also gathered later in the summer when the plant is green and growing.[Oswalt Eskimo]
- Shoots: Shoots used as a potherb or to make soup. Since the parts are tender, they can be gathered in any stage. [Harrington]
- Leaves & Young Shoots: Leaves and young shoots - raw or cooked[46, 61, 257]. Used to make soups[257]. They are best harvested from autumn to spring, even the brown overwintered stems in spring can be used[172]. [PFAF] Alaska Native piled leaves on high ground and stored for winter use.[UMD-Eth-1]
- Unspecified Parts:
- Eskimo, Inuktitut Food (Ice Cream)-Used to make "Eskimo ice cream." (Soup)-Used as a condiment for soups. (Unspecified)-Eaten raw or with seal oil and salmon eggs.[UMD-Eth-3]
Medicinal Uses
- Hippuris vulgaris – tudan-ot in Khakas – was used for curing fever and for fumigating... [Svanberg EE]
- Whole Plant: The whole plant is an effective vulnerary, the juice being taken internally or applied externally[4, 172].[PFAF]
- Herb: Herb extract for TB, blood diseases, and typhoid fevers [Quattrocchi]
Use In Tibetan Medicine
DAM BU KA RA
The plant is also known under the names ljang lo chig skye and rtswa mngar. The syn. rtswa mngar means sweet grass and refers to its sweet taste. In the shel gong shel phreng[1], no types are mentioned, whereas two types are recognized by mkhyen rab nor bu[2]. He differentiates between a superior type, dam bu ka ra mchog, and an inferior one,dam bu ka ra dman pa. Both types grow in water. While the inferior type resembles an onion plant, the superior one looks like a monkey's tail.
The whole plant is used for medicinal purposes.
The sweet nature of dam bu ka ra is neutral, the taste is sweet, the quality is blunt and the secondary qualities are smooth and flexible.
All parts of the plant are applied to treat various hot diseases such as - glo tshad, a disease affecting the lungs; - rtsa tshad, a disorder of the nerves; - mchin tshad, a liver disease; - rus tshad, a disease affecting the bones, as wellas hot - bad kan smug po diseases. It is also used internally as a wound-healing remedy in cases of weapon injuries to the lungs.[Kletter&Kriechbaum]
Phytochemicals
| Hippuris vulgare - Hippuridaceae [DukePhyto] |
| Chemical/Part/Lo ppm/Hi ppm/Reference |
| AUCUBIN - Plant 3-15ppm [PC36:927] |
- Chemical investigations of Hippuris vulgaris revealed the presence of caffeic acid, ferulic acid and traces of the flavonoid kaempferol in hydrolised extracts. [Kletter&Kriechbaum]
- The plant is rich in mucilaginous compounds, but lacks astringent substances, ellagic acids, leucoanthocyanins and saponins. [Kletter&Kriechbaum]
- Fresh plant material yielded the iridoid aucubin, which is mainly located in the cortex and phloem of stem and underground organ[8]. The stem also contains the anthocyanin glycosides cyaniding-3-glucoside and cyaniding-3-galactoside[9].[Kletter&Kriechbaum]
- Hippuris produces the carbocyclic iridoides aucubin and catalpol (Wieffering 1966). [Kadereit]
- The phenolic compounds caffeic and ferulic acids, kaempferol and scopoletin are accumulated. [Kadereit]
- Hippuris accumulates soluble carbohydrates only [EESC] Carbohydrates are stored as stachyose (Hegnauer 1967).[Kadereit] "[It's] described as a plant which stores oligosaccharides, especially stachyose, in place of starch (Hegnauer, 1966). This physiological feature, which is also found in the Lentibulariaceae (Janauer and Englmaier, unpublished data, 1985) distinguishes it from other aquatic plants." "Hippuris belongs to a group of plants where the concentration of monosaccharides exceeds that of sucrose. Yet in the range of the oligosaccharides, Hippuris is different. As it lacks the storage of starch, the main form of carbohydrate accumulation is stachyose and, at much lower levels, raffinose and melezitose. The high content of stachyose (up to 34.6% dry weight in the emergent plants) is quite remarkable, because total sugar concentrations rarely exceed 10%, and the starch content in leaves or stems of many macrophytes can often be lower than 1% dry weight (Janauer, 1982c)." [EESC]
Cultivation & Propagation
- Cultivation: "Requires a wet soil or shallow water, preferring one that is base-rich[17]. Dislikes shade. Plants have a spreading root system and can be very invasive[1]."[PFAF]
- Propagation: "Seed. We have no details on this species but suggest sowing it as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame. The plant spreads vegetatively so vigorously, however, that you probably won't have to worry about growing it from seed. Division in spring. Division is very easy and can be carried out at any time in the growing season. The divisions can be replanted direct into their permanent positions."[PFAF]
References
- [E-flora] Hippuris vulgaris, http://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/Atlas/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Hippuris vulgaris&redblue=Both&lifeform=7, [Accessed: 11/5/2014]
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/pubs/docs/Mr/MR_IllustratedFlora.htm
- [3] , http://www.Theplantlist.org, Accessed on April 23, 2014.
- [DukePhyt] http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/, Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases. [Online Database] Feb 11, 2015.
- [EESC] The effects of emersion on soluble carbohydrate accumulations in Hippuris vulgaris L., Georg A. Janauer, Peter Englmaier, Aquatic Botany Volume 24, Issue 3, June 1986, Pages 241–248
- [Kadereit] Flowering Plants · Dicotyledons: Lamiales (Except Acanthaceae Including ...edited by Joachim W. Kadereit, 2004, Springer-Verlag, Germany
- [Kletter&Kriechbaum] Tibetan Medicinal Plants, edited by Christa Kletter, Monika Kriechbaum, 2001, Medpharm scientific publishers, Germany
- [PFAF] Hippuris vulgaris Plants for a future, Accessed November 5, 2014
- [Quattrocchi] CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants: Common Names ...By Umberto Quattrocchi, CRC Press, 2012, Boca Raton, FL
- [UMD-Eth]Accessed Feb 11, 2015, http://herb.umd.umich.edu/
- (1)Heller, Christine A. 1953 Edible and Poisonous Plants of Alaska. University of Alaska (p. 135)
- (2)Ager, Thomas A. and Lynn Price Ager 1980 Ethnobotany of The Eskimos of Nelson Island, Alaska. Arctic Anthropology 27:26-48 (p. 37)
- (3)Wilson, Michael R. 1978 Notes on Ethnobotany in Inuktitut. The Western Canadian Journal of Anthropology 8:180-196 (p. 191)
General Use of Hippuris Sp.
Species Mentioned; Hippuris vulgaris, H. Tetraphylla, H. Montana. [Schofield]
Edible Uses
- Stems & Leaves: Fall to spring. (This is the traditional season for harvesting mare's tail; for survival purposes, though, it could be collected in any season.) Grace Johnson of Nome, Alaska, tells of her husband returning from spring hunts with brown, wintered-over mare's tail. Plopped in boiling water, mare's tail astounded her by turning kelly green. “The plant is excellent cooked with goose, “ said Jonson, “and it tastes just like swiss chard.” “In summer it has a strong flavor that I can only describe as tasting very green.” [Schofield]
Medicinal Uses
Ancient herbalists employed mare's tail for internal and external bleeding. It was a favorite remedy of Culpeper, who prescribed the juice and decocted herb as a drink for those with ulcers; these fluids were also used as a wash for skin irritations. [Schofield]
References
Page last modified on Monday, December 27, 2021 4:30 AM