Sorry to be out of touch, been entertaining and mucking stalls after all
this rain!We've been on the equisetum quest for a while now. I brought a jug
of our experiment up to the conference, and caught a moment of Hugh
Courtney's time to ask his opinion on the smell. I guess I should have asked
other people as well, there was just so much going on. It sat by the door of
the conference all Sunday afternoon.WE have hymale. it grows here in the
herb garden where we planted it and has spread out gradually to other areas
by way of underground propagation, though i never see runners. It grows one
to three foot and branches a bit later in the year. it is much larger around
than arvense. they are not alike WE've seen some hymale growing along the
roadsides near here , much larger than ours .I've had the plants shipped to
me to try and get it going here from streambed type areas in new york, and
kept it alive as a potted plant. however to put it in the garden on it's own
you must try and duplicate it's envirnnment which is as allen describes
,gravelly railroad banks, near streams or boggy areas. we found it growing
for miles on a rail to trails project in eastern ohio,and evvirnmentaly
clean as well.we do have one a plant in a pot and are trying again to
propogate it.
THe arvense is very airy and delicate looking when we harvested it
in spring, like a soft, tiny, christmas tree, pale green, about a foot tall.
the odor of the brew is to me penetrating and most definitely similar to
sulfur. it also lingers on the body when you get it on you, maybe why it's
effective. it's probably not ..a good idea to plan a romantic evening
without a good bath after spraying it! what fun.:)Sharon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Allan Balliett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 8:04 AM
Subject: Re: equisetum
> >At 12:03 PM 10/11/2002 -0400, Sharon wrote:
> >
> >> Equisetium arvense is the recommended one for biodynamics, we had the
other
> >>hymale growing in our garden and did an experiment, with fermenting it.
The
> >>hymale did not have the strong potent smell as does the arvense,
although it
> >>is similar. it seems worth the trouble to get the arvense to me.
:)Sharon
> >>
> >
> >Hymale is the naked stem we call "joint-grass". It has no leaves and
> >the spore cone is on the end of the stalk. So it's pretty different.
> >Of course, I don't really know how different the various members of
> >the equisetum family might be for prep making. All have high silica
> >and sort of micro-teeth like scales in their outer surface. Which is
> >why they were used as "scouring rush".
>
> I remain pretty confused about identifying the varities of equisetum.
> As far as I can determing, both Hymale and Arvense appear in BOTH
> forms, the bush 'pine tree' and the leaveless 'snake grass' or
> 'joint-grass.' Chadwick says that arvense is the only equisetum that
> has joints that end with a brown edge. Photos of hymale on the web
> show it to have a brown edge to the segments.
>
> There is a good pictorial on arvense (albeit in Spanish) at
>
http://www.uniovi.es/UniOvi/Apartados/Departamento/Biologia.Organismos/Asign
aturas/Botanica/Imagenes/Equisetum%20arvense%20(Sphenophyta).JPG
>
> I've yet to brew a stinky pot of equesetum this summer. Given
> Sharon's remarks, I suppose I should change suppliers and start again
> -OR- locate arvense locally.
>
> Any more suggestions on identification? -Allan
>
>
>
