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A few critters I’ve seen around our backyard/block in recent months. I love the colour of the bower bird’s eyes.

Wow, I have heard most people say the opposite: that they find cubes easier Id'ing than pans. If only there was some kind of book recently published that contained just this sort of ID information, with photos of course...

not an easy plant to, grow big and to get lot's of seeds. i struggle even, i a very warm part of oz. iboga, is a very special plant, and ants know that better than us humans, so often she struggles in cultivation, because of amphids. ants place amphids onto iboba, and than milk the amphids, to get the medicine/drug. if ant's love a plant, humans should love it too.

Tsk tsk Wile, have you not learned anything about how this government allocates funding? The less qualified, and the more stacked with LNP cronies, the more likely they are to get funding! Andrew Robb on the board of MMA...

ok, i don't want to start a new tread, so do honor endorfinder even more. 1, pm me if you want gumbi gumbi seeds for free. 5 lots available, seed collected just days ago. 2, a good link Thompson_BSci_Honours_2014.pdf (usq.edu.au) 3, another good link https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/9/7/887/pdf

Ooooooh yeeeeah!

Here comes the rain again, falling on my head like a memory, falling on my head like a new emotion.

https://mindmedicineaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Mind_Medicine_Australia_The_Conversation_Crititque_26012021.pdf FYI MMA did not cut their funding to PRISM, PRISM chose to part ways because their values did not align with the approach of MMA I was also planning to post some juicy Twitter exchanges but the MMA clean up crew are saving Tania's ass by deleting her impulsive replies. I'm sure there'll be more, stay tuned...

Hey @Boof the ones in the long grass are c.molybdites and it looks like you have a few different sorts in the tray pic. Toss out anything you are unsure of. I can’t comment on the other short grass and leafy mulch ones.

Finally had enough rain at my place to go foraging! Heaps of mushrooms about, but not so many of the type I was looking for. If anyone knows what some of the other varieties are, I'd be keen to know. Some were in my front yard.

I’m in sub tropics and mine look like it’s on the verge of death during winter. Really not confident with it growing in vic, that’s not to say it can’t be done. ;) If you can keep temps above 15°C she’ll be right. Go for it!

I disagree, I grow mine outdoors with no special needs, I am border line sub tropic to temperate. takes a bashing from the winter cold south winds no problem.

https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/15-million-for-development-of-innovative-therapies-for-mental-illness?fbclid=IwAR1y7LwCz2oQjmUVm4Ei2mS3oaM1hiJMjciKLO0bv13uKTKGNhOYIeju9eQ Thought this deserved it's own thread. Can't get any detail via the grant portal yet, will update as I learn more.

Yeah check it out, this is the press release for the $15 million federal government grant for a psychedelic clinical trial: https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/15-million-for-development-of-innovative-therapies-for-mental-illness?fbclid=IwAR1y7LwCz2oQjmUVm4Ei2mS3oaM1hiJMjciKLO0bv13uKTKGNhOYIeju9eQ P.S. NAC are cashing in by trying to monopolise wild harvested Loph. KT suggested most NAC consumers have only been following the tradition for ~100 years at most while people with far older consumption traditions " lack any legal right to consume it since they are not members of federally recognized tribes." Psychedelics be makin' it rain

I think it is more a case of the NAC trying to cash in than concern for conservation, as trucha was explaining just the other week. Maybe TDJ has more in common with drug 'traditions' than is apparent at first glance. In terms of drug law reform, I think conservation is a good way of countering drug stigma by expressing positive narratives about drug use. Kinda similar to the origin of the term entheogen. Psychedelic drug user sounds a lot worse than entheogenic conservationist!

Maybe it depends on the plant species. I notice that the Native American Church is broadly opposed to the decriminalisation of peyote, fearing further exploitation of this endangered species. (Non-Native Americans should try an alternative medicine, according to an official Church statement.) In any event, the clinical space will probably be dominated by synthetic analogs ... for better and/or worse.

I've been on this quest for about 10 years. Good luck! Will let you know if I get doubles at any point. Are you aware that it's online now? I like having the physical library too but thought you (or others reading this) may not know about this amazing resource. https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa

I have some seeds to give away. First in best dressed. I did a giveaway post in fb group but forum peeps get priority. ;) Pick up Gold Coast or can post. Send me a message if you want some.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The residuals of what you’ve been trying might interfere with this getting started but we have had great success using predatory mites to control spider mites and russet mites on a range of plants. Read about them first as how they get introduced is important for good results. Some are better suited for indoor use than others. https://www.buglogical.com/spider-mite-predator/ https://www.arbico-organics.com/category/two-spotted-spider-mite-control-deciduous-fruit-trees https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/mite-predator-phytoseiulus-persimilis-spidermite-killer-greenhouse/pest-solver-guide-mites https://www.gardeninsects.com/spiderMiteControl.asp https://greenmethods.com/persimilis/ There are lots of suppliers but check reviews as this is a live product and not all suppliers are equal. In some cases the mites can’t survive without food so need to be shipped with some green leaves infected white flies or another food source to ensure live arrival. One other thing to keep in mind is that many approaches to pest control either cannot or should not be used on cacti. Anything that harms the waxy outer layer can result in scarring or burning. In some cases this is from losing their protection to the sun but sometimes it is due to the product causing actual damage. Oil sprays in particular should be avoided. Predatory nematodes can be helpful additions to cactus gardens also depending on what pest is causing problems.

Sorry to respond to such an old post but I don't get on forums much anymore. There is a question whether introducing wild plants brings something unnatural to the mix. People complain about wolf re-introductions too. To be successful, at least from my point of view, one ideally wants to use the sort of genetics as came from that locality. And we actually quite often do have those thanks to European cultivators who have been actively maintaining peyote lineages for a century or more. But is this a real concern in this instance, and if so how much? Peyote in South Texas clearly did not originate in what is now the Peyote Gardens as most of that landform is less than 11.5K years old. The Gulf (and ocean levels) was almost 500 feet shallower back then so a lot of where people lived at that time is now underwater as people like to congregate near the coast. Humans often have an idea of there being some primordial static state of perfection but the reality is all healthy and robust ecosystems are in flux and constantly changing and this has always been true. That appears to be the story of life. Fragile ecosystems tend to arise when pressures of one sort or another are absent and create a unique and magical picture that cannot survive those pressures (ground nesting birds for example can be really heavy hit or even obliterated when rats, pigs, dogs or snakes are introduced). These special ecosystems are more akin to museum displays than to robust ecosystems. When we value them, we have to work to protect them or we rapidly lose them as they lack resiliance. Peyote is not a fragile plant and it approaches being weedy in vigor. Ponder almost all of its habitat being wiped out in South Texas (95%+ according to some estimates) yet people still being able to harvest a million plus plants every year via legal channels and multiples of that illegally. The question arises, let's say it was possible to get landowner permission to replant peyote someplace where there was no more, is that harmful if the activity is possible? If so, how and why? There are a lot of repopulation efforts ongoing involving everything from star cactus to saguaros to the zapata bladderpod. Strangely I don't hear those complained about the same way as I do peyote. Sometimes looking at who is speaking can be illuminating too as often what is also included is the idea that it is wrong to cultivate peyote anywhere for any reason. I'd suggest repopulation of peyote would cause fewer harmful ecological effects than did its removal by rootplowing and land conversion and those activities would make more sense to be seeing objections. Introduction of plants rather than seeds will maximize the success. To do that a period of cultivation is required. It would however be pointless to just plant out a bunch of plump, lush peyotes and expect them to still be there the next year. Hardening off is part of any successful repopulation strategy. Wolf reintroduction is a great example of why we should sometimes reintroduce species that we've removed. People still actively try to wipe these out when they are released. Mainly ranchers. However, aspen trees had gone into a serious decline from saplings being destroyed due to elk overpopulation after removal of the wolves. After their releases aspens are beginning to come back. Clearly those wolves are not killing that many elk but their presence did appear to rapidly affect the fertility rate. Nature is connected like a tapestry. South Africa provides another example of why intervention can be good if it is on a solid conceptual basis. Vaccination of cattle against rinderpest led to less disease in wildebeest. Wildebeest populations rebounded led to grass fire suppression. Grass fire suppression led to more Acacias surviving which enabled the dwindling giraffe population to also rebound. Prior to that the approach had been exterminating wildebeest on the mistaken notion they gave it to the cattle rather than vice versa. Helping address the problems we cause commonly produces a cascade of unexpected positive results. Blindly repopulating single species can be potentially fraught with some problems if done mindlessly (introduction of endophytes or insects and pathogens in imported soil, or replacement with a plant people think is somehow similar to what is gone and it proves to lack controls and becomes aggressively weedy, for examples) but it is also a powerful and important tool. Back to peyote. I'd love to know the perceived dangers of its repopulation. Feel free to email me to discuss this. I have no qualms about anything I say being shared but often lack enough free time for participating in forums or social media.

Miss him a lot, he was pretty much my first SAB friend, he was so open and friendly and generous, at a time I really needed it.

Chinese eBay vari Peru.

I think just the outer green part. From the paper: "A fresh sample of chlorenchyma from the green outer cortex of the stem of each Echinopsis species to be assayed..."

hahaha, glad to know im not the only person who has problems with those menus in altered states