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The Corroboree

MORG

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Posts posted by MORG

  3. Posted

    Just to be clear, I haven't attempted to import anything illegal. The seizure was a collection of dried leaf samples for DNA vouchers.

    The parcel I'm expecting was from a publisher.

    I'm not concerned about customs, rather that my previous seizure may have created a flag.

    If others have been sprung for importing seeds etc and continued to receive things then that suggests that I'm being paranoid.

  4. Posted

    Earlier this year I took a chance and posted some dry leaf specimens to myself from overseas. Quarantine intercepted the package, deemed it an unacceptable biosafety risk and destroyed it. I received a polite but firm letter from them breaking the sad news.

    Fast forward 3 months and I get a call from Fedex. They want to know what's in a package addressed to me (same receiving address as used for the above case), from the USA, contents undeclared and value declared as $1. I'm expecting some documents and a journal and I told them as much. They seemed satisified, told me they'd write this on the description then allow it through to customs.

    This sounded somewhat peculiar that they'd take the precaution in this instance for a single package... which makes me wonder, did my previous transgression put me on a quarantine naughty list?

    Does this sound realistic or paranoid? Some of you must have had plant material intercepted before, perhaps you've had a similar experience?

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    The amendment bill is here:

    http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/nswbills.nsf/0/380e2bd2df6e05aeca257be2001dfa34/$FILE/b2013-113-d14-House.pdf

    From page 6:

    "36ZG Prohibition of advertising of psychoactive substances

    A person is guilty of an offence if the person publishes or displays in any
    manner, way, medium or form any advertisement:
    (a) knowing or being reckless as to whether the advertisement promotes, or
    apparently promotes, directly or indirectly, the consumption, supply or
    sale of a substance for its psychoactive effects, and
    (B) providing information on how or where the psychoactive substance may
    be acquired.
    Maximum penalty: 20 penalty units or imprisonment for 2 years, or both."

    The definition of advertising seems so broad as to outlaw internet discussion on Acacia localities.

  8. Posted

    Who's MORG?

    Nice find on the Corybas, Horizon. Love these little dank forest floor denizens.

    All of those three you posted images of are ostensibly pollinated by fungus gnats. The basis of pollinator attraction is still not understood though. I think there are probably exciting tales of mimicry and evolution in fungus gnat pollination, but the biology of gnats and their role in ecosystems is still poorly known.

    I don't know if you know this, but the labellum of Pterostylis nutans retracts at touch. Underneath the "hood" you'll see the curved "tongue". If you take a thin stick and touch it to the tongue it will spring quickly up. When done to a gnat this forces the insect against the reproductive parts of the plant as it exits the flower.

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    South Africa really is an ethnobotanical hotspot. The country has a floral biodiversity rivalling Australia and rich, deep and widespread traditions of plant use in all realms of life. As a visitor here in the Zulu heartland for the last couple of months I have only been exposed to the Zulu and Basotho side of the story (and not very deeply at that), but plant-use for ritual, health and religion are a firmly ingrained part of life here.

    There are muthi markets in town selling all manner of concoctions, dried herbals and remedies spanning uses from digestive ailments to child birth to lifting curses. Field guides to the local flora include local names with traditional uses for plants (including things like 'charm to ward off lightning'). The botany conference has enough ethnobotany to fill a couple of days of talks and the students and academics come from a couple of the best ethnobotany and phytochemistry labs in the world. If you want to study ethnobotany its a country you should seriously consider working in.

    I have seen swathes of Silene capensis and dense pockets of Leonotis leonurus in the grasslands here. A photo of the latter in its natural habitat is embedded below. Unfortunately I just missed peak flowering, so while my photo shows only one plant, there were plenty more carrying the remnants of flowers just finished. It was nice to see it at home.

    The arid areas I've yet to explore, but seeing Sceletium, Hoodia and in their native habitat would be a thrill.

    I'm not sure on the details, but there are some here with a "traditional healers licence" who advertise online for ayahuasca sessions and there are a couple of aya retreats. This community seems small and reclusive however.

    Iboga is legal; there are clinics administering treatments, and it doesn't have far to travel from Cameroon/Gabon.

    If you ever make it over here, make some time for plant tourism.

    Lion

    • Like 4

  11. Posted

    Including hybrids in the sample is going to throw out a nuclear DNA analysis as much as it does a chloroplast analysis... unless you've got both.

    Good molecular taxonomy should avoid including any samples of potential hybrid origin. If this is achieved then chloroplast DNA reflects pure maternal lineages within species. So the rigour of this study all comes down to what's represented in the sample.

    • Like 2

  13. Posted

    Thanks for the paper Anodyne! I have heard of some Amazon orchids promoting the same result in bee pollinators.

    I wonder if we will ever be able to establish a biochemical case for these narcotics being an insect "reward" in and of themselves. Interesting.

  14. Posted

    Most orchid myc are so poorly known. If you can find a media on which it grows properly then go for it. I don't think you can overpower the seed. The more the better. Most of the biomass of a very early seedling is actually sequestered fungal pelotons.

    I do know however that some species will grow asymbiotically.

    I only know of one way to get myc cultures: from the orchids themselves.

    I've never done any symbiotic germination, wondering if they use selective substrates ( ie ones where the mycorrhiza don't get so well established that they overpower the germinating seed )

    And where would one source a pure symbiotic culture?

     

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    Orchid seed sterilization is not too tricky. Wash once with 1% Sodium hypochlorite, then 4 times with sterile water.

    The hard part is symbiotic germination with mycorrhiza!

    I wonder how often these cases of inebriated pollinating insects are due not to any nectar physiology but natural yeasts fermenting the nectar crop. Anyone know anything about alcohol metabolism in hymenopterans???

    • Like 1

  16. Posted

    I'd love just one of these articles to hit closer to the mark:

    "DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, is typically sold as a brown powder and causes trancendance of the self, hallucinations, an inability to concentrate, fear, humbling awe and perceptions of colour and truth more visceral than consensus reality."

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    Penny was the first member of this forum that I met in person. She gave me my first plants, one of which I still own.

    She impressed me as an extraordinarily warm, open and accepting person. I didn't spend a lot of hours in her company, but she made every one of them a great conversation and connection.

    She was also a keen inquirer and student and I hope a small part of her has been satisfied with an answer now.

    My thoughts and love are with her daughter and family now.

  18. Posted

    Agreed with Jabez.

    Further, if you seasonally incorporate habitual or compulsive behaviours into your life (such as scanning wet garden beds), then these second-nature behaviours will naturally carry over into dreams. It is actually one technique designed to enhance your chances of lucid dreaming. Every time you look for fungi, ask yourself if you are dreaming. Sooner or later the answer will be yes.

    I've had fungi dreams. But not for a couple of seasons now.

  21. Posted · Edited by MORG

    I highly recommend Fuhrer, if not just for the beautiful pictures.

    I find the best approach is to own every field guide you can. None of them are close to comprehensive so the best strategy is to get as many as possible and cross reference.

    Other authors in my library include I.R. McCann, Tony Young and Fungimap.

    It's not a bad idea getting a field guide to Europe or North America. Their references are in general much more complete, easier to use and better to learn the basics from. Add to that many species (and a great many genera) have cosmopolitan ranges which makes o/s field guides another useful book to have lying around.

    Edit: As far as O/S guides go, this is one of, if not the best: http://booko.com.au/products/9780898151695

    'Mushrooms Demystified' by D. Arora.

    Taxonomy is a bit out of date now, but still a very good book.

  25. Posted

    c'mon guys lets get some love going here

     

    "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" - Chris Hitchens.

    Fair enough we can have a discussion, but lets remain cognizant of the fact that some people will always be more sceptical than others.

    I'd love to know if indigenous Australians used DMT, but post-colonial wishful thinking and pontification sounds like a desperate attempt to create a new age shamanistic mythology that we wish we had. Further, I find it a bit disrespectful that we would try and jam our own culturally desirable (and ultimately synthetic) indigenous history where it might not be welcome. Maybe we should let them tell the few stories they have left, instead of filling the voids colonialism created with whatever we might wish was true.

    • Like 3
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