Pot-cleaning plants
When people clean pots and pans, they probably use scratchy pads of
steel wool or plastic. But long ago, people cleaned pots with plants
called horsetails.
Horsetails, also called rushes, are short, hollowstemmed plants that
grow in sandy places. They have a rough, sort of glassy covering on
their stems. This is the same kind of stuff that makes sand scratchy.
When the people of long ago scrubbed their pots with the scratchy
horsetails, the pots got nice and shiny.
The word “scour” means to clean well. Because the horsetails did such a
good cleaning job, people gave them the name “scouring rushes.”
horsetails
