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fyzygy

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Posts posted by fyzygy

  1. Posted · Edited by fyzygy

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-022-01130-0

     

    "Our results suggest that climate change will become a primary driver of cactus extinction risk with 60–90% of species assessed negatively impacted by climate change and/or other anthropogenic processes ..."

     

    There's an author copy of the article for download here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359964361_Elevated_extinction_risk_of_cacti_under_climate_change/link/625b856d9be52845a90a6158/download

     

     

     

  2. Posted

    3 minutes ago, Ishmael Fleishman said:

    Nicotiana rustica 78% so I think we can be certain it is right

    I doubt that the app ever would return a 100% probability rating, for even the most common plants. Certainty no; probability yes. 

    I think there is an option for user to contribute pictures of known-ID plants to the database, for better or worse. 
    As with any GPS app, use with caution if your plant's location is sensitive information. 
    There could be better plant ID apps out there, this one suited my budget and has proven useful, even to narrow down to a handful of candidate spp.

  4. Posted

    I've been the brunt of some amazingly bad behaviour on eBay -- stalking, bullying and abuse conducted via the eBay messaging service -- all perpetrated by a certain upmarket "sacred cactus" trader notorious for their voluminous hype (including the aforementioned SAB namedropping). This is separate to the various eBay sellers who've set up shop trading on the good name of public-domain educational sites like Trichoserious Ethnobotany, for example. 

     

    1 hour ago, withdrawl clinic said:

    so they as well jeopardise my reputation!

    I guess it's a familiar story in the history of capitalist exploitation. Injustice, that is. 

  6. Posted

    17 hours ago, withdrawl clinic said:

    btw, somebody stole my nickname "planthelper" and pretends to be me at facebook.

    they use my good reputation, to make money.

     PLANTHELPER ON FACEBOOK = IMPOSTERS

     

    Scumbags! I've seen similar behaviour on eBay too, abusing the website name of one of the members here. 

    Caveat emptor, facebook friends. 

     

  8. Posted

    1 hour ago, Ishmael Fleishman said:

    I read and see that Nicotiana rustica is an annual herbaceous plant that grows up to 80 centimetres tall. However, mine is over 1.5 meters.

    Recently I was investigating edible weeds, and found that sow-thistle grows to a height of 1 metre. But I had backyard specimens growing at least double that height!

    Once your plant flowers, you might be able to get a better ID, even using an app like pl@ntnet. 

  9. Posted

    the spots seem to grow a little darker on maturity, possibly with a light crust or scab. but they don't seem to get any larger. emergent growth on another branch doesn't have the spots. the garden seems quite biodiverse lately, lots of different insects about. so maybe a beetle could be the culprit.  there were ladybirds on those phyllodes a week or two prior to the emergence of the spots. first sign (?) was more of a rust-coloured blotch on a single phyllode, larger and more irregular than subsequent spots. 

     

    1 hour ago, Freakosystem said:

    If I'm correct, the patches will not change in size as the damage is done. The red patches may completely die off but won't get larger. If it is a fungal symptom, the patches will grow over time.

    Freakosystem, your input is much appreciated!

  10. Posted

    https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1958-01-01_2_page007.html

     

    ^ includes some detailed botanical diagrams, results of chemical analysis of different plant parts, etc. Document title suggests older information, as published in the UN Bulletin of Narcotics. But new to me. A traditional tea from khat leaf (presumably dried) is specified at 5-15 grams per litre of water. No method of preparation is given.

  11. Posted

    Good to know. Probably beyond my budget though. 

     

    Packing the roots in wood shavings (as commercial operators do fruit trees) seems to work fine for Acacias, it's a great space saver and makes a seedling easy to pack bare-rooted in a mailing tube or envelope. Obviously wood shavings come in many different grades and qualities ... I scored big bags of clean native-timber wood shavings from a manufacturer of picture frames. So far, so good. 

     

     

  14. Posted · Edited by fyzygy

    Stems still seem very frail, maybe 8 weeks (?) since germination: the slightest drop of water will cause them to fall over sideways. They seem to crave sunlight, rather than the "light shade" specified in description of native habitat -- mine being kept quite sheltered. Germination rate for these imported seeds was less than 25%, seedling attrition due to damping off about 50%. 

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    • Like 1

  18. Posted · Edited by fyzygy

    This lot of seed pods freshly harvested from old mother khat, unknown viability, PM if you'd care to try propagating and I will send you some.

    Second pic. shows established clone, for reference.

     

     

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    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    I've heard that bees use electromagnetic polarity to navigate among flowers. Flowers being positively (or is it negatively?) charged prior to a bee visit, then reverse-polarity for a while thereafter. I don't remember the source: Attenborough on TV? 

     

    In any case ... 

     

    Shouldn't DC polarity make a difference, or is it merely the flow of electrons through the plant that does the trick -- in which case, you wouldn't need a connection to "ground" per se, just any two points on the plant? Is the technique said to work for potted cactus, substituting potting media for true ground? Or only for in-ground specimens? Would touching terminals to root and branch (on a bare-rooted plant) yield the same result? Sometimes I use a DC source to heat the wires in my beekeeping frames -- if you left the terminals connected long enough, you'd presumably overheat the plant -- granted, cactus not being as conductive as metal? 

     

    Who knows? (rhetorical question)

     

    There is an interesting chapter on pioneering botanical experiments involving electricity, in The Invisible Rainbow --  http://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=93E30FBB4FC43B490B7EB477C0795C37  

     

     

  25. Posted

    I've also seen the technique demonstrated using just the upper half of a leaf (bisected perpendicular to stem). A leaf laid flat on surface of growing media will sometimes work. As mentioned above, some species (e.g. S. divinorum) will produce roots from a leaf cutting, but nothing further than that. Plenty other species will readily develop into new plants from a single leaf, given *time* and favourable growing conditions.

     

    I would love to get my hands on a M. speciosa clone!

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