[Ansteorra] Equisetum hyemale aka Scouring Reed

[kc wilde]

Xanthe,
 
Horsetail reed is common enough in Texas to be considered a weed in some areas.  Strangely enough, it's also sold as a bog and pond plant at high-end water garden & pond shops.  It can usually be found at the edge of ponds, lakes, reservoirs and very sluggish rivers.  I've personally seen it at a (now underwater) site in Gonzales, and near a small lake in Buescher State Park, near Bastrop.  I've never seen it west of I-35, but I suppose there could be the odd marshy area here and there.  Anywhere you find a boggy area, stagnant or slow-moving water, check for colonies of this plant.  It looks like very small, slender bamboo, about 12" - 18" high (above the water or bog, that is).  Sometimes it has a fringe of "foliage" ringing each segment -- at which times you can sorta see why they call it "horsetail" as it does kinda resemble a foal's little broom-tail -- but other times there's no fringe, just colonies of damp, green, bamboo-like reeds.  
 
Or, you can go to a pond store, buy yourself a start, put it in a big bucket of compost and water and start growing your own.  If you want it for polishing purposes, best to look for a wild colony, harvest some for scouring purposes and yank up some roots to start your own colony.
 
How much you need depends on what you're polishing.  I once saw an enterprising lass wrap thick twine around a fistfull of these reeds, cut to about 5" long, and use it to scrub dishes.  I think it lasted thru the whole sink of dishes, so one good handful of scouring rush (at 12" - 15" long) should give you about 3 good "scouring pads".
 
BTW, it works for scouring because there's silica in the plant's vascular makeup -- so I guess whatever silica works on, this would work on.
 
Mari



"In my view, books should be brought to the doorstep like electricity, or like milk in England: they should be considered utilities, and their cost should be appropriately minimal.  Barring that, poetry could be sold in drugstores (not least because it might reduce the bill from your shrink). At the very least, an anthology of American poetry should be found in the drawer of every room in every motel in the land, next to the Bible, which will surely not object to this proximity, since it does not object to the proximity of the phone book." -- Joseph Brodsky