My prehistoric nemesis

Dear Diary,
Today, I weeded. Yesterday, I weeded.

If Lamarckian evolution were true, any offspring of mine would be born with a small groove in their index finger, to aid the pulling up of horsetails. I've developed one over the past few days. One of the old chaps down the allotments keeps telling me that if I keep pulling them up, it will drain the sap from them and they'll eventually give up. At least I presumed he was talking about the horsetails, but thinking about it, it's more likely he was talking about their effect on me. After all, they have been around since the end of the Devonian Period in some form or another, so they probably feel they have more right to the earth than I do.

You can't dig their roots out very well, as they go down too deep, but it is extremely satisfying when you pull up a longish bit. That only makes it angry though, as does hoeing. They then return with many heads, like a chlorophyllic Medusa.

Although only small fry compared to their Carboniferous ancestors, today's field horsetail (Equisetum arvense) still has a little of the prehistoric about it. Especially their spore producing bodies sent up in the spring, before the 'leafy' parts appear. Apparently, the plants can be used as scouring pads, as their epidermis contains silica. If you know anyone who needs half a hundredweight of pan scourers, please do let me know. It is also allegedly a herbal remedy.

You can buy pretty ones for the garden pond.

Here's a link to a very dull video on horsetails - don't blame me if you waste two minutes of your life you'll never get back.