- Hi, I'm Shana from Sage Country Herbs,
and I am here at Mount Pisgah Arboretum
with Mountain Rose Herbs,
and we're going to go and enjoy some of our plant friends
of the Pacific Northwest.
Come along.
This is a super cool plant to check out.
We're looking at this right here
and these right here.
This is Equisetum,
this is horsetail.
So, horsetail has such a wide history,
not only with human use
but this plant is not changed since the dinosaurs.
This plant has been on the planet for that long.
It grows by water,
very commonly grows by water.
It doesn't have to be in water,
it likes marshy areas,
it likes to be on the edges of water.
But it's called horsetail
because of all these wonderful,
the way that it looks like a horse's tail.
I mean, of course,
we even get that from the Latin name, Equisetum,
equine is horse,
and so Equisetum, this is horsetail.
But this is one form of it.
And then there's also this other form of it.
And this is basically,
this is a plant that,
the primary way that I have used this plant
has been externally.
It is a ridiculously rich source of minerals like silica
and that silica makes your skin incredibly soft.
And actually,
I learned about this from a very well-known herbalist
who I didn't get to take an apprenticeship with
but I got to just take a couple of classes with,
and that was Cascade Anderson Geller.
And she told this wonderful story about,
about these Ukrainian women,
and seeing these Ukrainian women in Portland
doing some harvesting
and noticing their Ukrainian husbands on the lookout.
And so slowly over the course of a couple of months,
Cascade got slowly closer and closer and was like,
so that they would know that she was there
doing similar things that they were.
And then when she finally got close enough
and she was able to ask them,
she's got her little bag of goodies
that she's been collecting
and then she asked them,
what are you collecting?
And the show the horsetail
and she asked them what do they do with it,
and they liked to put it in their baths,
especially the baby plants, the young plants,
they liked to put it in the bath
because it makes your skin so incredibly soft.
And while that is a wonderful thing to learn about it
and that it is commonly used in supplements for minerals,
especially plant-based supplements,
but what I learned more importantly from that story
is actually how we can use our relationships with people,
especially diverse people from around the world
and how much we can learn when we open ourselves up
to recognizing that everybody
has areas that are their expertise
from their own experience.
It's one of my favorite things about living in the Southwest
because we have so much diversity in the Southwest,
from the very close proximity to Mexico
and Central America,
as well as the many many indigenous cultures
from the Southwest.
As well as just the heavy diversity
of people from around the world,
that go to LA and go to San Diego
and go to places and settle down,
and that opens you up.
I've done plant walks with people
that speak all different languages
and it's wonderful to be able to hear.
Some people will say, oh, I know the name of that,
but it's in my own tongue.
Like, oh I want to hear it.
I don't remember it because I don't know their language,
but it's so cool to recognize
that there is so much to learn in diversity.
And that's actually what this plant teaches me.
When I think about horsetail,
I think about the value of diversity
and how we can learn something from anybody.
Thank you so much for joining us
for a plant walk at Mount Pisgah
and I hope you come back and see more plant walks,
and maybe I'll see you out in the field.