The latter name refers to the plants ' rush-like appearance , and to the fact that the stems are coated with abrasive silicates , making them useful for scouring -LRB- cleaning -RRB- metal items such as cooking pots or drinking mugs , particularly those made of tin .

The latter name refers to the plants ' rush-like appearance ; the stems were used for scouring cooking pots in the past -LRB- due to them being coated with abrasive silica -RRB- .
