The message
from Sacha contains these words:

I went to the chiropractor this morning and in exchange for sorting out my
neck and giving him a cheque, his wife presented me with something she
wanted us to ID. We have no idea. It look a bit like asparagus when
tightly closed but is a dark, reddish-bronze and when open just has little
sort of lippy things sticking out each side all the way up the stem. She
didn't give me a height but it sounds like about 12". She said that last
year she had a couple of spears and this year there's a couple of clumps.

Sounds horribly like the flower spikes of mares-tail.

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Rusty http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/tqt.htm
horrid·squeak snailything zetnet·co·uk excange d.p. with p to reply.