Equisetum = horse + bristle
Sunday, 5 December 2010
My childhood familiarity with horsetails (Equisetum spp.) did not prepare me for their use as a landscaping plant.
To me, they were in the weed category, albeit in the interesting weed subcategory, as opposed to the noxious, poisonous, ugly, or other unpleasant weed subcategory.
I remember picking stems and pulling the sections apart and marveling at the open tubes.
I still retain a bit of amazement that they are used as a decorative garden plant, even after encountering them carefully husbanded in a flowerbed over two decades ago.
And, I spoke just in time the other day about the unfrosted tomatoes; they’re now reduced to plant-mush.