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Coleus sp - contains forskolin (activator of adenylcyclase) - treatment of heart failure, glaucoma, bronchial asthma, hypertension. Vasodilator and mild sedative. (WInk, BEVW and M)

Oh why, oh why, don't you Just die? Why you wan't to make me cry? Oh why, oh why, oh why... We could just pass the bye and bye, But no! you want to make my other plants die! Oh why, oh why, oh why

Hey all saw this video on Khan Academy and thought id share it. It's a simulation over hundreds of millions of years of the Milky Way colliding with Andromeda. http://www.youtube.com/embed/QXYbGZ3T3_k

S.d. is indeed extremely powerful, and if you don't remember much of what happened, you probably got too large a dose. I have never even used an extract as the plant works fine for me just as is. The highly concentrated extracts out there now (if you believe that they really are the strength stated. I have my doubts.) are dangerous enough to cause the unseasoned to do thinge like jump through unopened glass doors and crasch through windows--check out utube for an assortment of dumb things done by those who didn't take the plant seriouosly enough. However, I have seen this happen just from using the leaf and not an extract. Propper preparation is the key. It's this kind of inexperienced and foolhgardy behavior that has led to listing and prohibiting of S.d. in several of the states over the past few years, with more jumping aboard that bus every year. There are adequate new users guides online so life threatening experoiences don't have to happpen if only they are read and the information utilized.

I think Tas75 and WoodDragon have it right - do it legitimately and try and get locally what you can't take in. The AQIS laws are there for good reason and it wouldn't be worth the fines.

to a lizard or a small mammal that would be a spiral mountain imo stuff like this is what makes the Corroboree gold, no politics, just bitchin cacti

Who says aliens have to come from space. The ones I have met are not from outer space.

Recently I've had a fair few people ask me how I germinate Ephedra seeds. I used to follow methods found here and elsewhere, but always had poor results. Now I use the following method, with reliably good results. I've found the best way to germinate Ephedra seeds is to sow them on the surface of a good, but well draining mix. Getting a good seed raising mix and mixing it with a bit of coarse sand/fine gravel/perlite/diatomite should be ideal. If you can be bothered, the seeds should be sown with the point down, so that the radicle emerges straight into the soil. If you just scatter the seeds across the surface without orientating each seed, the radicle may emerge skywards, resulting in the root arching over to find the soil, wasting energy in the process and risking drying out while exposed. It still works of course, but you might find yourself painstakingly trying to help out those seedlings which have not immediately found the soil. Until the seeds germinate and the cotyledons have unfurled, you should keep them humid by whatever means you find convenient, such as polyethylene wrap placed over the pot/s, or placing them inside an enclosed plastic tub, etc. Then shortly after, harden them off to to atmospheric humidity so that the seedlings do not succumb to damping off. Be careful not to let the pot/container get too hot while enclosed with cling wrap or whatever you're using to keep it humid as they will cook (so full sun is not a good idea at first). Partial sun is good, at least initially. Full sun should be fine when they've established themselves a little. After that, treat them similarly to cacti, e.g. don't over water, etc, but also be careful not to under water. Just make sure that the soil is always at least a little moist, but not saturated. Hopefully this will be of some help to others.

The bottom picture is a HBWR while the top is a rivea, in my experience with hbwr, they seem to just stop growing all together if they stay in a small pot, so they need regular pot changes. My oldest hbwr in a small pot is around a year old and looks almost exactly the same as yours. If you had planted out the woodrose around the time of your rivea, they maybe around the same size, the rivea slightly more dense maybe. Thanks for the photos