Home UK English mare's tail

Meaning of mare's tail in English:

mare's tail

noun

  • 1A widely distributed water plant with whorls of narrow leaves around a tall stout stem.

    Hippuris vulgaris, family Haloragaceae

    ‘Southern farmers can now add tropical spiderwort, mare's tail and morning glory to their list of glyphosate resistant weeds’
    • ‘At 2 oz. / acre, its residual control spectrum includes seedling dandelion, common lambsquarters, mare's tail, horseweed, eastern black nightshade, pigweeds and shepherd's purse.’
    • ‘Interestingly, pike-bearing streams also contained an abundance of mare's tail, while streams without pike did not.’
    • ‘Also known as mare's tail and by its botanical name Conyza Canadensis, it grows straight upright on a central stem surrounded by long, thin leaves.’
    • ‘Most plant dry mass in the diet of Barrow's Goldeneyes consisted of seeds of submergent and emergent macrophytes, particularly those of pondweeds, mare's tails, and bulrushes.’

  • 2mare's tailsLong straight streaks of cirrus cloud.

    • ‘I remember the day: a warm evening riding back from the workshops, a dusting of misty mare's tails high in a sky already touched by gold.’