CunningPlatypus

I think you're probably spot on with plant #1, though could it be another legume, a good ol' fashion goober (Arachis hypogaea)?

MountainGoat, I know of two places, both in the U.S., that you might want to hit up. First, for seeds you could try Fruitlovers.com: http://www.fruitlovers.com/seedlistUSA.html I believe they currently have some viable Guarana seeds, though their site is down and says it won't be back up until May 7. Just FYI, I know of two people who ordered these seeds (along with similar P. yoco) and were unable to get them to pop. I can attest that Fruitlovers is a trustworthy nursery, so it might just be that Guarana is tough to germinate, or needs some pretreatment. For plants, try topTropicals in Florida: http://toptropicals.com/cgi-bin/store/store.cgi?item=2743 These just came up for sale about a month ago. Definitely spendy, but this plant seems to be rarely available so get 'em while you can. One more FYI, avoid all the shady eBay sellers -- seeds are pretty much guaranteed to be old and dead.

gtarman, As someone who lives in a cool climate, I feel your pain. Hemia salicifolia easily survives/thrives in zone 8a. It might die back to the roots, but it inevitably rebounds with gusto. Here's a thread from another forum that might give you some answers. http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?topic=919.0

I had some success sprouting Latua by cold stratifying them in the fridge for a month, in peat pellets. After that, they took another month or so to germinate. These seeds came from S.S. The germination rate wasn't great, but I was happy to get a few sprouts up. Though my plants are still little (largest being about a foot tall) they are outside in the ground (Zone 8) and appear to be tough plants, not overly bothered by pests, fluctuating temps, or wet/dry spells.

From everything I've read, you would be lucky indeed to get your I. guayusa to set seed. Many moons ago, I contacted Runa, one of the only suppliers of Guayusa tea, to ask about getting viable seeds. Their response was that I. guayusa simply doesn't set seed and is reproduced entirely from cuttings. At the time I wasn't convinced, but it appears the folks at Runa may be right. From reading about this plant, the few times that botanists have encountered Guayusa flowers, they have all been imperfectly stamenate. No pistilate flowers have been found, except for the odd deformities which resemble those of I. paraguarensis. One theory behind this is that Guayusa has been a manmade cultigen for so long that's lost its ability to produce seed. Here's a fascinating and short article about the botanical search for Guayusa seed, including tidbits referring to its use with ayahuasca. http://wlbcenter.org/Schultes%20Publications/BotMusLeaf_27_155-160.pdf

Easiest -- and most delicious -- way is to simply pop 'em in your mouth and let the foamy stuff disolve. It's actually pretty sweet and supposed to be quite healthy. Plus, it's a great conversation starter; "Here, put this in your mouth and suck." FYI, if you DON'T get all of the foam covering off, you're pretty much guaranteed to get a nasty fungus which will kill your seed once planted.

Thanks, tarenna. That's exactly what I needed to know. There's hope yet!

Not to hijack this thread, but as it seems a common enough problem, why DON'T our Iboga set fruit? They seem to flower easily enough, but like everyone else in this thread, I've never gotten so much as a single fruit. Are they not self-fertile? Are they dioecious? Is it a pollinator issue? Climate?

Yes please, Shamanistic, if you're willing to send them abroad. Thank you for your kindness. I'll shoot you a PM as well.

Shonman, This book was recommended to me by someone with a similar interest. I've never seen a copy, but he raved about it. http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Medicinal-Herb-Farm-Production-Including/dp/1603583300

Thank you, Folias! Seeds arrived yesterday in perfect shape from their global jaunt. Much appreciated!

From Raw Story: LIMA — Using maracas, coca leaves and a hallucinogenic brew, shamans in Peru got down to business Monday using pre-Columbian traditional ceremonies to pick a winner in the US presidential race. “The apus (gods of the hills in indigenous mythology) tell us (Barack) Obama will be reelected,” predicted Juan Osco, known as the Shaman of the Andes on San Cristobal hill overlooking Lima. Members of the group placed flower petals on photos of the candidates that were also swept over with tobacco smoke. The shamans chewed coca leaves, a traditional ceremonial and medicinal plant since Inca times that helps fight altitude sickness. And the crew took some swigs of ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew used widely among Amazon basin indigenous people. At least one thing was clear, they said: Obama should defeat Republican Mitt Romney on Tuesday. Here's the link: http://www.rawstory....-obama-the-win/

The fear here at home is that the Repugs have muddied the waters enough -- through a slew of less-than-trustworthy polls and Faux's non-stop Obama bashing -- to give the impression that the race is a close one. If they can just give the perception of a tight race, then altering votes on the unverifiable electronic voting machines can be done without raising too many eyebrows. I've read that this is particularly possible when the polling puts the two candidates within ten percent of each other. Any more than that, and vote flipping would be too obvious. This makes sense, as in our last election, Obama beat McCranky Pants by a huge margin, making any attempted nefarious vote altering impossible to conceal. Og help us all if this comes to pass, as my gut tells me that we're about to experience another disturbing and 'surprising' election, reminiscent of the first (and second, come to think of it) shrub election. Romney will narrowly win, against all odds, with close enough margins to seem feasible. Scares the bejeebus outta me. My only hope is that wiser folks have already thought this scenario through, and made suitable precautions against voting machine fraud.

Just want to add that Khatmando's seeds are rightous. He was kind enough to send me an extraordinarily generous lot here in the States. When people talk about 'near 100% germination rates', with any plant, I tend to smell bullshit, though Khatmando's seeds are germing at very close to that. I think it also speaks volumes about Catha's undeserved reputation as being difficult to sprout. It's simply not true, if the seed is fresh enough. If you're able, I highly recommend that you take Khatmando up on his kind offer.

Out of curiosity, is that a Catha edulis plant in the first picture, on the left? Your cactus look extremely happy.

Our government's spending on the machines of war is truly disgusting. I believe the US spends something akin to 59% of its tax dollars on the military. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of people without jobs, homes, or the ability to get medical treatment without being haunted for years by hyper-inflated medical bills. The American dream may not be dead, but our pols are doing their greedy best to keep it out of the reaches of the great unwashed. Your chart is a stark reminder of just how out of whack we've become. A great bumper-sticker for the God fearin' war-mongers out there, hypocrites at their finest: W.W.J.B.? (Who Would Jesus Bomb?)

There used to be a PNG member here who went by the moniker of Cassarius. Wonderful guy, and a profoundly talented gardener. His knowledge of iboga and S. divinorum inspired some pretty amazing threads, but sadly both Cass and his threads have disappeared. I'm pretty sure he's still there, somewhere far, far away from Port Moresby. If you ever bump into someone who fits that rather vague description, then give him a shout from CunningPlatypus and ask him to return to the boards.

This is a thread about said seeds from a different site. The seeds were originally identified as Diplopterys cabrerana. As Bluntmuffin has noted, not much seems to be known about D. pauciflora. http://www.spiritplants.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4462

Aloha all, I too ordered this same batch of seeds, purported to be Diplopterys cabrerana. They hail from Peru. If anyone’s interested in the seller’s info, then feel free to PM me. I imagine the Australian import laws are extremely strict, but this guy’s got all his T’s crossed and the suitable paperwork for export. I planted this batch up at the end of November, using peat pellets (for the most part) and keeping moist with water and H2O2. I thought they were duds until about a week ago, when the first sprout reared its head. They’re not much to look at yet, though I snapped a couple of nondescript photos. I have three sprouts so far. They’re growing slooooowly, far behind the caapi seeds I planted at the same time. I have no idea if these are really the fabled DC, and it will obviously be a long time before any bioassay gets done. I have to say, though, that the seeds themselves look closer to the few legitimate photos and drawings of Diplopterys cabrerana than I’ve seen yet.

Many moons ago, I had the good fortune of living in Ethiopia as a volunteer. I was there for the better part of a year, in a smallish, dusty city called Gondar. Khat (or chat, as it’s locally called) is chewed in tremendous quantities all over Eastern Africa. Come mid-day, when the chat shipments mysteriously arrived (seemingly out of thin air – one minute the kiosks were empty, and the next they had garbage-bags full of greenery), the streets would quiet down dramatically, as the chewers moved inside to chew chat and drink bunna (coffee) in peace. I used to chew it regularly, after work, and consider it one of the finest substances known (if not the best) to focus the mind. For anyone out there needing a productive study session, khat blows anything else out of the water. Since the slant of this thread has moved on to khat varieties, let me say that the Catha chewed in Ethiopia is, to the best of my knowledge, the same as (or very similar to) what’s commonly called the ‘white’ or broad-leaf variety.

Aloha all, I have a good friend who enjoys dabbling in Morning Glory seeds, though he swears that the vasoconstricting properties make the whole experience almost unbearable. Almost. After a typical session, he's often laid up for a couple of days with an aching back and painfully sore legs. I keep telling him that he's really too old for this kind of childish behavior, but he just won't listen to reason. He has asked me (via the wisdom of this and other boards) if I knew of any PROVEN success with countering the painful vasoconstriction. Would drinking a wee amount of alcohol prior to/during the adventure be effective enough for counter vasodilation? He'd rather not drink too much and change the nature of the Glories. How about Niacin -- would that possibly work? Apparently, celery is another natural vasodilator, though my friend finds that hard to swallow. Any advice would be much appreciated.