Art by Alice Tangerini: Equisetum arvense L.

From Plant Press, Vol. 18, No. 3, July 2015.

At the 13^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Next Generation Pteridology: An International Conference on Lycophyte & Fern Research,” opening speaker Robbin Moran gave an overview of ferns, horsetails, and lycophytes and displayed Alice Tangerini’s illustration of the horsetail, Equisetum arvense. Tangerini’s 1977 drawing originally served as the title page for the chapter, ”On Names and Naming,” in Humanistic Botany by Oswald Tippo and William Louis Stern. Knowing Tangerini’s predilection for drawing horses, Stern suggested the theme of the chapter illustration to Tangerini and gave her full rein on how to depict the subject. Tangerini consulted images in the Botany Library’s collection and likely some herbarium specimens for the drawing. The caption below the illustration reads, “The bushy form of the horsetail plant (Equisetum) has suggested both its English vernacular name and its botanical name.” In 2001, Stern donated this drawing and others in the book to the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.