EQUISETUM
ARVENSE
Approximately 65 million years ago, the last dinosaurs disappeared from Planet Earth. That is a lot of days and nights; hard to imagine, what life might have been like back then.
Around 2 million years ago we have evidence of the remains of the first subspecies of the cross over between the great apes and humans.
This comes from the scientific work of the Leakey family in and around Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, rather close to where I did some extensive anthropological field work among the olMaa people of Ngorongoro.
To walk through the savannah and try to imagine life a couple of million yerars ago is doable, especially with the remains of a pre-human skull in your hands; to go even further back to 65 million years ago, seemed impossible.
I needed something to hold onto. My link to the glory of the dinosaurs was, and is, the modest wild plant EQUISETUM ARVENSE.
Did you know, ferns and Equisetum Arvense are the only two plants left from when the dinosaurs lived?
Sit down for a while, while looking at this modest medicinal plant, and imagine large parts of our planet covered with them.
The green colour is so uplifting; furthermore it does not have leaves, but needles; and it contains the largest amount of Silica in any plant known to us.
The best time to pick it, cutting carefully at least 10 cm above the ground, to promote re-growth, is during April and May.
If you have not gotten your winter supply yet, you can still make it.
Cut, harvest, take home to rinse in water, hang to dry, and put some needles in your winter smoothie to get you going through the darker times.
