That looks a lot like the material that I’ve used extensively for my conifer forests. I’ve got many hundreds of them planted so far and I think they make an excellent forest. It looks like your samples are from a pretty large example of the the plant; I try to use the upper tips of the stalks where they naturally tapper and have a denser arrangement of “foliage” to make a great looking tree with a squirt of dark green spray paint (really dark) and a dusting of ground foam foliage.
But I don’t know the name of the plant. I’ve tried to research it but no luck, I’ve even considered taking to a botanist but I’ve never followed up. I don’t think it’s Caspia because I’ve never seen it flower. It grows in the worst growing conditions imaginable; I look for it on construction sites that are being preloaded (large piles of sand used in these parts to compress boggy ground for future development). This stuff seems to grow at the bottom edges of the piles where there may be just a little moisture. I’m pretty sure I saw it growing on the gravel edges of highways on my trans Canada trip last year in the prairie provinces, but I didn’t stop to investigate. It grows in a single stalk only a few inches tall to a clump of many stalks up to 16” tall. The tip of each stalk yields a single conifer tree, and the next piece down the stalk may provide a good deciduous tree. It grows green until fall, never flowers (although all plants flower, we just don’t notice unless we’re botanists) until it dies in late fall. I collect it by the garbage bag when it’s healthy and green and let it dry.
This reminds me: I should keep an eye out for a good patch...
Geoff
