Horsetail

Equisetum arvense

These are also called scouring rushes. There are two versions of the same plant: this and a green feathery version. I think, but do not know, that the green version was the scouring rush. We found this huge area of horsetail at the Crystal Lake outlet at the railroad tracks. The soil is very sandy, which horsetail likes.


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Scouring Rush

Our foremothers used this to scrub their pots and pans, giving field horsetail this name. In this photograph, taken behind my garage on Saturday, you see the brown fertile stem and the green sterile stem. In an earlier post I identified the green sterile stem as ground pine. I first saw these stems growing behind the garage when the guys were replacing my well pump. They put the old pump and pressure tank in my junk pile there. That is when I had my first inkling that my ground pine was horsetail because I knew that horsetail came in two versions.

This was confirmed by Heather Irvine (our guide and a former student at the Northeast School of Botanical Medicine in Ithaca, NY and current student at the Vermont Center for Integrative Herbalism) on a Wild Edibles Walk at the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier when it was pointed out to us. This plant is not featured in either of my wildflower books (Wildflowers of Vermont and National Audubon Society Field Guide to Wildflowers Eastern Region). For more information go here and here.

When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window.

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Ground Pine It's Field Horsetail

Genus Lycopodium

Club moss of the northern hardwood forests — not a pine, not a tree, not a moss. It's a type of fern: "evergreen, perennial, clonal, and rhizomatous in nature." I'll be keeping an eye on this important inhabitant of my forest during the summer. When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window.

I went on an Edible Wilds walk in Montpelier Saturday and learned that I mislabeled this plant. This is the sterile horsetail. The fertile horsetail can be seen here. I apologize for the error.

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It's been a long time since I posted. Taking four days off from blogging over Labor Day turned out to be over 12 days. I like this shot of the horse because of the tail. I'm still working hard to catch up to everybody's posts. If I have not visited you, I will!

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