365 Urban Species. #220: Horsetail

[urbpan]

Photos by urbpan. Location: Underneath railway bridge at the Wishkah River, Aberdeen, Washington.

Most of the weeds we admire, revile, or ignore, depending on our own interests, are plants that bear flowers, and subsequently, seeds. But this lifestyle is a relatively recent development, having evolved only about 140 million years ago. Before that time, plants reproduced by emitting spores. The greatest biodiversity of plants today is among the flowering plants, but some of the spore-producing plants are still with us. Mosses and ferns are familiar, but the horsetails are less well-known.

They are tall and straight plants, knotted stafflike stalks surrounded by whorls of thin raylike branches. They appear primeval to our eyes, and are often depicted in artists depictions of prehistoric landscapes. Before flowering plants evolved into trees, horsetails towered over the heads of the dinosaurs. Today there are only between two and three dozen species (depending on what source is reporting) of these once dominant plants.

The species E. arvense, known as common, or field horsetail, is the most widely distributed and most urban. Like many of its flowering competitors, once it is established in an area it is hard to remove, as it regrows from its rhizomes. Though it is considered a native plant in Europe and the Americas, it is an unwelcome weed in agricultural settings--spoiling cropland and poisoning livestock. In urban environments it tends to grow in waste areas, such as along railyards and industrial sites. It tolerates sandy, acid, and saturated soils, as well as soils dense with clay. Another species, giant horseweed (E. telmateia) can also be urban, growing in drainage ditches and marshy areas.


Location: 19th street, Tacoma, Washington.

Comments

[twistedapple.livejournal.com]

It is also said to be an antidote to stinging nettle.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

and as it picks up a lot of minerals (silica?) it's been used as a scouring pad and sanpaper material in times long gone by :)

#

[gardenfey.livejournal.com]

Get away from it, it's *eeeeeevvvvvvviiiiiiilllllll*!

[smallerdemon.livejournal.com]

There are some beautiful examples of these in the San Francisco botanical garden. They have a prehistoric section and these are one of the primary features of that part of the garden. It's a great, lovely section of the park and I LOVE these plants. :)

Enquiring minds want to know

[by-steph.livejournal.com]

Where on the plant are the spores produced? Also, why do all of my comments involve reproduction?

Re: Enquiring minds want to know

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

1) there are special spore-producing stalk heads during its reproductive phase.

2) Good question! Is it because I mentioned it when I did Japanese beetles? Or is it just a particular interest of yours?

[elizaeffect.livejournal.com]

My teacher used to call this "Dinosaur Food". :)

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

That's cute! Someone must have said something similar to me when I was young because every time I see horsetails they conjure up images of dinosaurs. And being the nerd I am that makes me smile!

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I love those! They're facinating!

[klandaghicat.livejournal.com]

I miss those! As soon as I saw the pic, I got all nostalgic!

Thank you!

[escape-garden.livejournal.com]

I have been looking for a tough, texturally interesting native plant to put in a spot that will be difficult to water (but needs a planting so I don't have to keep looking at my neighbor's AC unit!). This is perfect. Thanks for the background information!

[klandaghicat.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm, how about doing Sheepshead? That's what we called it, growing up. We used to eat it. Just because we knew we could!

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

The first couple pages of a google search revealed fish and card games--what is it when it's a plant?

[klandaghicat.livejournal.com]

I'll try to find it. We called it that, might be something else. My Mom was big into the Foxfire books and our Native American friends id-ed it. I remember it being a low grass-type plant. When it came up in the spring, we'd just randomly pick it and eat it while we were out playing.

[klandaghicat.livejournal.com]

Okay... might be lamb's quarters, which looks fairly common all over. The young plants look right. We only ate it in the spring, when it was small and only when we lived up in WA. Now, I'll have to contact my Mom, find out why we called it sheep's head and why we didn't eat it anywhere else we lived. She made us eat poke salad when we lived in AR.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

http://urbpan.livejournal.com/278973.html

Poke is one I'm planning to do soon, too!

[silvaerina-tael.livejournal.com]

For some reason, this one of my favorite plants. I've always associated it with ancient/alien "stuff". I have a couple of pictures of horsetail in my yahoo photo album if you're interested. http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/silvaerina/album?.dir=/f626scd&.src=ph

[http://users.livejournal.com/purplebunnie_/]

I recall hearing that it's good for bruises....

[calientepocket.livejournal.com]

i see these all the time- i live right off of 19th

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Nice city you have there! I frankly wasn't expecting much, and I had a real nice visit. We were only in town for a couple hours, saw the glass museum, drank at the Swiss, took pictures of some weeds, and ran off to the airport.