Anyone know what these are?

Discussion in 'Identification Area' started by dymondlil, Apr 9, 2010.

  1. dymondlil

    dymondlil Gardener

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    A friend took this pic but doesn't know what it could be:cnfs: Wondering if anyone here can enlighten us please?
    [​IMG]
     
  2. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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  3. dymondlil

    dymondlil Gardener

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    Thanks Pete, another one solved!:)
     
  4. Boghopper

    Boghopper Gardener

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    I hope you haven't got it Lil, cos once you have, you'll struggle to get rid of it. I know it's an ancient plant that the dinosaurs are supposed to have feasted on but the roots go down metres and it's incredibly invasive. Perhaps someone has a suggestion on how to eradicate it. It comes up in a big garden I look after and there seems to be more and more every year.:scratch:

    Chris
     
  5. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Although they are reminiscent of horse tail they don't look quite like the horse tail I have grown to 'love', grrrr :mad:. They are extremely dificult to get rid of.

    One recommended way is, apparently, to bash them with a spade and then apply a systemic weed killer. You need to crush them in some way to allow the killer to penetrate as they have a high silica content. This will take regular applications and can stunt them over a period of years. Someone told me recently that a new weedkiller has been brought out that works well on it but I don't know anything about it.

    I accept that they are in my garden and, during the growing season, I go round carefully pulling them out. This doesn't get rid of them but if you grip them firmly where they meet the soil and gently pull upwards you will not only get the plant from the surface but up to 6" of root. They seem to pull out easier if you let them grow big big enough to just start to open their fronds. Don't snatch at them as they will break off at the surface.

    I fill a sack each time but only have to do it about once a fortnight and it takes about half an hour. Since I've been doing that (20+ years) they haven't spread at all. Don't let them get too big around July time as I understand they produce spores in the summer. I remember reading somewhere that live roots were found 70ft underground protruding from the roof of a coal mine tunnel!
     
  6. dymondlil

    dymondlil Gardener

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    No I haven't got it, thank goodness! My friend took the pic whilst out walking in Oxfordshire.
    I did have 'Mares Tail' years ago in another house, and it was a complete nightmare. It broke through the new tarmac drive and even came up through the floorboards in one room.
    We were told then that it's virtually impossible to get rid of, as the roots go so deep. I'm so glad I don't have that problem just now.
    I don't remember it looking like in the pic though.......maybe I didn't notice it in that stage of growth.
     
  7. pete

    pete Growing a bit of this and a bit of that....

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    I only learnt when googling that "horse tails" and "mares tails" are two very different plants.
     
  8. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    I always thought that Mare's tail grows in water and horse tail grows on land - but I may be wrong.
     
  9. dymondlil

    dymondlil Gardener

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    I've been googling too and just read the same thing shiney, although I'd been led to believe Mares Tail and Horse tail were the same plant.

    In our last house I remember it being like the pic on the left of the HorseTail pics in this link.

    http://www.sherriff-amenity.com/technical.asp?newsid=3
     
  10. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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    Ours look like the one on the left when they are shorter and the one on the right when they have grown higher.
     
  11. Kandy

    Kandy Will be glad to see the sun again soon.....

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    We have these growing on our allotments and I think this is the spore stage,then the proper xmas tree green growth comes later,I found some in front of the door to one of our sheds this afternoon and as I brushed it with my gloved hand the spores started to fall from the top part and drifted off with the breeze:(

    A friend of ours is a retired Ordinance Surveyor and he told us years ago that one of his colleagues found roots that had gone down over 40ft when he was working on one of his surveying jobs.The only thing that I know of that kills the stuff is sheep.The chap on the plot opposite us had it all over his plot{that's how it spread over to our plot}but after he got a few sheep on the land afetr he had grassed it over the sheep nibbled the grass and the plants and eventually it all died off:D

    We only have a small patch but have tried loads of things to get rid of it but it still keeps coming back:(
     
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