The Blackberry: a most useful weed!

Blackberry, Bramble or Rubus aggr.

Some healthy and juicy blackberries on my former allotment!

The genus Rubus is part of the Rose family which is family number 48 in Stace. See for more about the woody Rosaceae in my post here.

The Brambles, which is one of the common names of Rubus has several native species but the one we know best is called the Blackberry (the useful, edible one) or Bramble (the nasty, spiny one).

I use colour coding for easy reading! Blue background is general interesting info (although I hope you find it all interesting!!). Green is about all the uses except for medicinal uses or if there is a warning in which case I use a pink background. Pictures by Matt Summers unless stated.

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The Horsetails: weeds or useful plants!

The main horsetail I’ll be writing about today is Equisetum arvense or the Field Horsetail otherwise known as Shavegrass, Bottlebrush and Pewterwort!

This plant often gets a lot of critiscism.

Especially if it grows in your own garden or on the allotment!

So I decided I must research the horsetail and write this post!

I read a nice chapter in one of my older books and start off with this and then list all its virtues on the next page.

The green sterile stems of the horsetail (courtesy of MPF Wikipedia)

Contents:

Equisetaceae or Horsetail Family

Extraordinary (extract from ‘Grandmother’s Secrets; her green guide to health from plants’  by Jean Palaiseul)

Equisetum arvense or Field Horsetail

E. hyemale or Rough Horsetail

Uses as from Wikipedia:

  • Domestic
  • Music
  • Medicinal
  • In cultivation
  • E. palustre or Marsh Horsetail
  • E. pratense or Shady Horsetail
  • E. ramosissimum or Branched Horsetail

E. sylvaticum or  Wood Horsetail

  • E. telmateia or Great Horsetail
  • E. variegatum or Variegated Horsetail
  • E. × ⁠trachyodon (E. hyemale × variegatum) or Mackay’s Horsetail
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 Scientific Classification of our Native plants

In my blogs, you may have noticed that I write about native plants and mostly refer to their scientific or latin names as well as the family in which they fit.

The reason is that I do not wish to make it just another piece concerning the uses of native plants, but one where I would like to place them into a Binomial nomenclature, a system which is essential for the idea of order in my ‘virtual ethnobotanical garden’!

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