Micromegas

Ok, perhaps. So can you clarify what statement it is making because I an genuinely mystified. Is it saying that caucasian Australians are generally blind the to history and plight of indigenous Australians since colonization, or choose to live in ignorance of the fact our beach-going middle-class world is founded on genocide, and it is therefore ironic that people should feel good about a few white folks hugging a blindfolded indigenous person on a beach in a city very remote and disconnected from the problem itself? Is it saying that actually everything is fine because a few people gave the girl a hug and therefore we all trust one another (or will do soon enough) and we're on the way to fixing the relationship, or it's not fine because while on the surface a few people are sweet actually the majority of Australians couldn't care less and neither side trusts each other at all I feel like it doesn't really say anything because the messages are very mixed... which paradoxically is the state of indigenous-caucasian relationships in Australia. So maybe it is really very clever but I don't think it was intentional and it wouldn't matter what ethnicity the person was getting hugs. If you're tearing up, is it because the video moves you in a positive sense, or because the impacts of colonisation in Australia have been so downright and unambiguously negative for the indigenous community? Sorry to derail (what I think) was the feel good theme of this thread but like I said i am genuinely befuddled about what we're taking away from this video. In a broader sense i think the issue is so complex I wouldn't dare even to discuss it, because I'd be so far out of my depth. By coincidence I was reading this evening about the role of dingoes in Australia and i stumbled across this rather stronger statement which made a greater impact on me personally, but that maybe just reflects more about me, and not the actual issue at hand. The dingo lounge - Samuel Wagan Watson, from Smoke Encrypted Whispers, 2005. those of the brown-skin lycanthrope have merely become the forgotten offspring from the dark ages of the dreamtime the black man’s beliefs are being swallowed up and regurgitated in foreign lands for a dollar the night creatures sucked into a vacuum of the techronic abyss the shapeshifters skull around the dingo lounge haunted by the screaming engines of the machines of consequence longevity just a whisper in the wind as their numbers dwindle and the dark hours are stolen by the monsters of new: drug addicts, pedophiles and killers the spirits have almost lost their foothold the children of the rainbow serpent have no use for demons scientific justification has rationalised their roles with prozac and insitutionalisation the dreamtime can be resurrected anytime and found on the video store shelves while in the dingo lounge redundancy and health in death escalates the bonemen have performed their last dance and the shrieks of the black dingo go unheard in the night as the ferryman has already gone down with his ship and morpheus in his attempts to dream has taken to anti-depressants there comes no stormbird to deliver them to another side as they fall into the landscape of the shadowmead and the faded memories of the storytelling damned.

That's really cool, especially that you use them personally, which augments the standard botanical identification and makes the subject easier to engage with - bushfood lists can sometimes be a bit dry!

It's a nice video but frankly i fail to see how it makes any statement about indigenous relationships within Australia. In fact it's almost an anti-statement that obscures the issue. It makes some kind of statement about how many people might hug a blindfolded person on a beach, which by the way is probably well below 13% of the total number of people on that beach on that day.

Hey swampjrass that is not a scop IMO, ribs too angular. Looks like super pedro or similar hyrbid, scopxbridge etc.

Mummy and baby.

Antiques roadshow.

Those are cereus, 99% sure.

Hi micoz I took the second photo in 2008, that takes me back. I called it the "tree climber" back then but it was the same as the "sausage plant" Later I saw very similar plants growing down cliffsides at Colca Canyon in southern peru. It's obviously a strategy. I'm still trying to get my sausages to grow in a tree!

^^ i gave up on pilosocereus for that very reason and I only get a few (maybe 3-5) mild frosts per year, but the terminating became frustrating. In suburban adelaide though they are fine, because they are more sheltered, my garden is very open. with a micro(megas) climate you'll be fine they are quite attractive. another worthy non-trich blue fella is azureocereus hertlingianus which does not apparently mind the cold but does grow quite slow.

^^ those are some pretty interesting plants there micoz... seed grown? in_spirit that is a Pilosocereus if that is what you are asking. It looks as if it has been damaged by frost in the past, they are a bit sensitive if you live in a cool area. The new growth looks good though.

Agreed glaukus looks like a healthy psycho0.

i would put some large rocks or wood in the bottom of the tank to simulate some dry land that it can crawl up onto, like you would have for a pet frog in an aquarium. if it's been on the back steps it can climb out if it wants to, yeah?

Hey incog, this is a five year old acuminata. It's the biggest from one batch of seedlings planted in winter 2010. The rest are between 10-50% smaller depending on their location, they were a bit hit and miss in terms of speed but most of them are 8-10ft or more; the difference in their speed of growth was more in their spread and "fullness". I have never watered or added anything to this plant, i.e. fertiliser or rhizobium. My annual rain fall is 350mm, soil is poor loam on clay with crumbly limestone about 80cm down. There's no trick, it could be the soil structure/type? I do not think acuminata is a good hedging plant, IME it grows narrow and tall and does not fill in below say a metre which is what you want from hedge. It's not a great windbreak either unless it is staggered with other, bushier plants. It is a good host for Santalum species. The narrow-leaf variant would be a better hedge because it is bushier but is a far less attractive plant IMO and slower growing. Burkitii is bushy, but slow, but i don't think it likes clay it would prefer sand. Floribunda on the other hand is very quick and bushy and would probably respond to pruning where acuminata would not. That would make a good acacia hedge. But it will die quickly too, 10-15 years i don't know. The advantage of acuminata is it lives a long time, and this is probably reflected by the fact that it can grow slow as well. But my guess... If you planted your plants in summer, they are growing slow because summer is not their growth period - especially for their roots. They should pick up in cooler weather with natural rainfall and get going in the following winter after you first planted them, i.e. their second growing season. Mine do not grow in summer, even if there are summer rains. They might have grown if I watered them but i doubt it, maybe just a little. If they are not performing well in 18 months, only then would I be concerned and this would probably mean they do not like the soil type and you should chose a different species. I like acuminata a lot, it is attractive and hardy, does not seem to compete strongly against things planted closely nearby and develops attractive furrowed bark within four or five years. Good luck! I've never tried phleb. I did recently plant one and I look forward to seeing the results in six months' time when I see it next.

That is a beauty interbeing. Closest I have is T. glaucus from SAB webstore several year ago. But this one you have is prettier.

agreed, the hooked spine on wislizeni is a problem, i thought it grew out with age but that was incorrect. Ferocactus cylindraceus, Ferocactus covillei? I've no idea!

Ok so I propose we all attempt to grow Tristerix aphyllus on all the plants we have that we believe to be Chilensis, that should solve the debate! Anyone have any seeds?! Then we would only need to separate them from Eulychnia acida as berengar suggests, lol! Again, cool thread. We'll set up a romantic date for those two guys this season zed i should be around the garden more by then, i missed all the flowers the last few years.

This thread turned out to be quite interesting I definitely learned something. Thanks for the info mutant, would you mind sharing the name of the book? Interesting story about the guy hunting down cactus zed, sounds familiar (once upon a time a least, and not on foot lol!). So yeah I also have something I have been calling pasacana that I always thought wasn't really, and now I also suspect it to be a hybrid of chilensis based on this thread. It looks similar to yours but maybe not identical. It grows a lot faster than the two I posted above and your looks like it does as well - hybrid vigour? That is a really nice plant you have there we should arrange a date for them and see if they copulate productively to settle the argument!

While I am playing with photos this season i managed to grow my first anadenathera columbrina var cebil seeds! It took a few years for the plants to cope with the cold in my location, always dying back somewhat in winter (at first completely then at the branch tips) and being attacked by lerp-herding sugar ant bastards! But apparently no longer! Original plant courtesy of the master gardener t st tantra. Interestingly this year the sugar ants appear to have been replaced by benign bull ants living on the branches, I guess they keep the little ants away and no lerp.

Haha yes EG I believe you do mean it! And on reflection i believe you are correct. I do still think it looks like zed's plant mutant but i'm a definite hack and obviously don't spend much time on it. So this is also chilensis? The person who gave it to me had a large one labelled as such (chiloensis actually) so I just carried on thinking that way; it is distinctly different however there are definitely similarities. It also grows quite large but many more columns that are thinner, and it's slow. Are chilensis and chiloensis synonyms?

^^ what a beauty tantra would be proud of you!!

Hi Zed, check out this plant. It was sourced in SA. I call it Trichocereus "Spine Master" because it has 8-inch spines or longer. It looks a dead ringer for your beat up specimen if you look at the spination and wavy rib pattern. When heathly it grows tall and fat, mine is around 5ft. Did this plant come from a garden in the southern suburbs of adelaide? I may know the garden. I'm guessing here because it had some unusual plants but buried in grass and uncared for. Mine did not come from there though. Yours is the first I have seen that looks similar and i think quite possibly the same clone. It's a good find. My only concern is if it did not come rooted, it may be reluctant to grow roots. It is definitely not what i call T.chilensis/chiloensis so i called it Spine Master lol! Edit: here he is from above, hence the name.

I only say that because i have been to that garden and the lady had a kick-ass collection of feros, as well as echinocactus mind you. But she gave me this fella who i think is a baby version, but horridus and wislizeni are pretty similar hey. but i am 99% certain it's a ferocactus. Interestingly this plant is around 30yrs old... the plant in the original post not my photo.

i'm going for f.wislizeni

melocactus peruvianus methinks

about 25% of all validus tips i plant end up dichotomous, i have about 5. For this clone i think it's a trait. Quite frankly i'd rather they didn't as it slows them down a lot. Single stems are better although ask me in five years! as i do not know how they grow out, my guess however is unbalanced, slow and prone to toppling over but maybe they end up awesome, here's hoping. Monstrose however would be different.