Regarding the well named horsetail trees Calamites (as you point out) my wife's uncle and USGS geologist Reuben Ross once told how Welsh miners feared encountering them on a coal seam. Pointing out the tapered stem and the "pop" of horsetail's sectional growth, he'd note how it meant that unlucky miners deep underground sometimes cut through a still vertical section of tree-now-turned-to-coal that would- after its 200million year delay- fall like a stone pile driver on unfortunate miner below. I remember Dr Ross remarking on how miners were injured and sometimes killed by falling trees "alive when dinosaurs roamed the swamps."
Think about that next time as you try to avoid dead, standing trees for a forest campsite. Indeed those ancient, dead but still standing horsetails can be considered the world's first "widow-makers." Talk about an aptly named Calamity!
Growing up in Minnesota, we used to call them puzzle plants... since you could take them apart and put them back "together." Times were simpler back then... and we found ways to entertain ourselves outside primarily.
Your friend and I would get along. I take it a step further by grabbing a fistful, popping off bits, and throwing them at my fellow hiking friends like confetti. So satisfying a snap! Thanks for the deeper insight, natural history, and reminding me they’re not just around to play with.
Regarding the well named horsetail trees Calamites (as you point out) my wife's uncle and USGS geologist Reuben Ross once told how Welsh miners feared encountering them on a coal seam. Pointing out the tapered stem and the "pop" of horsetail's sectional growth, he'd note how it meant that unlucky miners deep underground sometimes cut through a still vertical section of tree-now-turned-to-coal that would- after its 200million year delay- fall like a stone pile driver on unfortunate miner below. I remember Dr Ross remarking on how miners were injured and sometimes killed by falling trees "alive when dinosaurs roamed the swamps."
Think about that next time as you try to avoid dead, standing trees for a forest campsite. Indeed those ancient, dead but still standing horsetails can be considered the world's first "widow-makers." Talk about an aptly named Calamity!
Wow, thanks for sharing. That's a wonderful story.
Growing up in Minnesota, we used to call them puzzle plants... since you could take them apart and put them back "together." Times were simpler back then... and we found ways to entertain ourselves outside primarily.
Ah, living la vida loca in the midwest in the 1970s!
Your friend and I would get along. I take it a step further by grabbing a fistful, popping off bits, and throwing them at my fellow hiking friends like confetti. So satisfying a snap! Thanks for the deeper insight, natural history, and reminding me they’re not just around to play with.
Thanks for sharing! I confess that I, too, have plucked and popped!