Some would say the first plant: ever! A gigantic earlier relative of the common horsetail thrived in the Carboniferous era and eventually became our present day coal deposits.
Containing silica, horsetails make a natural "sandpaper." On the west coast horsetails and salmon slime were used to polish masks, canoes, bone tools and soapstone pipes.
In spite of the rough texture of the stalk, the young plant heads can be eaten as asparagus.
Illustration by Manami Kimura
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Cycling
Have Bike, Will Travel. Explore ten unique landscapes by bicycle on both sides of the border in the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands. Peddled out? Many of these rural roads can be explored on foot as well.
