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A friend recently discovered a very strange plant growing in their garden. It seemed utterly alien. They used an online visual tool to identify it. It turns out

A friend recently discovered a very strange plant growing in their garden. It seemed utterly alien. They used an online visual tool to identify it. It turns out it's something called "horsetail" and it's considered a "living fossil". (In its later stages of life it does look much more plant-like). Via wiki: > Equisetum is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. > Equisetum is a "living fossil", the only living genus of the entire subclass Equisetidae, which for over 100 million years was much more diverse and dominated the understorey of late Paleozoic forests. Some equisetids were large trees reaching to 30 m (98 ft) tall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum The plants that we see right now are just a snapshot of what's currently successful. If we eventually find alien life somewhere, the strangeness might look a lot like the earth-bound "aliens" of our own past.

MichaelRo 2y ago
Well they are fairly common (seen them around here too), although they do look a little strange. What amazes me from the Wikipedia article: "People have regularly consumed horsetails. For example, the fertile stems bearing strobili of some species are cooked and eaten like asparagus(a dish called tsukushi in Japan)." If something is edible, people will probably have identified and eaten it. I suspect this didn't happen in the modern period of 'consumer culture', just for the taste and thrills but likely during the numerous periods of famine in history. Like grasspea ( "Lathyrus sativus", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus_sativus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus_sativus ), sort of a bean which strangely, can be eaten a few times to fend off starvation but "The crop is harmless to humans in small quantities, but eating it as a major part of the diet over a three-month period can cause permanent paralysis below the knees in adults and brain damage in children, a disorder known as lathyrism." Imagine having nothing to eat but grasspea, each day telling yourself: "Last time, tomorrow I'll have a nice loaf of bread with steak". Only to resort to grasspeas again, each day closer to the point of no return.

MichaelRo 2y ago

Well they are fairly common (seen them around here too), although they do look a little strange. What amazes me from the Wikipedia article: "People have regularly consumed horsetails. For example, the fertile stems bearing strobili of some species are cooked and eaten like asparagus(a dish called tsukushi in Japan)." If something is edible, people will probably have identified and eaten it. I suspect this didn't happen in the modern period of 'consumer culture', just for the taste and thrills but likely during the numerous periods of famine in history. Like grasspea ( "Lathyrus sativus", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus_sativus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lathyrus_sativus ), sort of a bean which strangely, can be eaten a few times to fend off starvation but "The crop is harmless to humans in small quantities, but eating it as a major part of the diet over a three-month period can cause permanent paralysis below the knees in adults and brain damage in children, a disorder known as lathyrism." Imagine having nothing to eat but grasspea, each day telling yourself: "Last time, tomorrow I'll have a nice loaf of bread with steak". Only to resort to grasspeas again, each day closer to the point of no return.