Wile E. Peyote

Don't wear tie dye, hide your dreads, carry a camera. Shit, if you're really concerned wear a collared shirt. Take a backpack and keep your finds in there, rather than out in the open. Pick a variety of mushrooms, or at least learn the names of a few that you can list when you discuss your mycological interest. I think the odds of 5-0 being knowing anything detailed about fungus are very low, so if you don't fit their stereotype of a 'druggo' and say a bunch of complex mushroom information I'm sure they'll get bored of you quick...

I don’t want to encourage wild harvesting, but I guess I see this issue with a few more shades of grey. ‘Resist the urge’ feels a bit like ‘just say no’ - my concern is that this type of messaging misses an opportunity to have a compromise type influence on people that won’t or can’t stop wild harvesting, i.e. rather than cutting down trees, collect fallen twigs and phyllodes. I also think leaving conservation solely to ‘professionals’ misses an opportunity for collaboration and discounts the important work of hobbyists and lay people. The divide between community cultivators of courtii and National Parks and Wildlife Service is an example. NPWS are not able to condone this cultivation as it is technically illegal, but they have also (privately) expressed hopes that this illegal conservation offers an additional protection to the wild population. Furthermore, I think these cultivators have greatly advanced propagation techniques that could be of use to NPWS and their conservation efforts in the future. These community efforts could be improved with some kind of database and tracking, alongside more organisation and planning with the involvement of diverse stakeholders, of course. Community contributions could also have a lot to offer in contexts like Loph in Mexico, where there are incredibly limited public resources being contributed to conservation. Again, please don’t interpret me as encouraging wild harvest of anything, I’m just really interested in the murky nuances around these issues.

First ep of Hamilton's, season 3

Ario rainbow

WK back in Sydney

Do cubensis lose less potency than pan cyans when dried? If so, any idea why?

Damn I love this resource. Go Caine!

Whaddya rekon

Hmm I think I was a bit hasty with using cubes as an example. I was just trying to highlight that while ethno communities often advocate for behaviours that encourage population growth of the species being harvested, this risks disadvantaging other species sharing the same environment. Thanks for the background on the toad issue, Flux. I’m looking forward to the new season of Hamilton’s and have been resisting the urge to binge it. Interesting that Shy mentions the potential hazardous impacts of Shaman’s of the Global Village, when I saw the Lophophora episode I was disappointed that the issue of plant conservation was not really addressed in that either.

Just to complicate things, I imagine there are environments where P. cubensis competes with vulnerable species. In these cases maybe we would aim to reduce the spread of spores?

I think this is some gozilla hybrid but I lost the label, excited to see it taking some form. Also very excited to see this butt graft pop, I did a few for lols but didn't expect them to work. I guess I better stop throwing them away...

But how do we ensure we are taking sufficient care in our individual harvesting or cultivation choices? If I want to cultivate for conservation purposes, for example, how do I choose which plants and how many of each to grow? I don't think there are clear or easy answers to these questions. My approach has just been to search for where my interests, experience and conservation issues intersect, to learn as much as I can about these intersections and apply my own effort in these contexts however I can. I dream of better organisation of consumers, gardeners, horticulturalists, ecologists, etc. as this would improve my confidence in making plant-related decisions. Sometimes it can feel like an overwhelming responsibility. I was even a bit hesitant to post that meme - maybe there could be big and scary implications if everyone started grafting to wild Opuntia.

Legend