JumpedAngel
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Posts posted by JumpedAngel
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Thanx for the excellent response guys, I guess I will have to try the fermentation treatment and see, look for an update in 2 weeks or so, I'd be happy to swap cuttings etc, and will do some PM's later today, I must say, It freaks me out a bit to think of sending things like this through the mail, any suggestions ?.
For the local guys, it might be easier to score your own, as I said in the earlier note "they abound at the trash and treasure market", $6 bought 1 by 6inch pot so overflowing that you couldn't fit it into a shopping bag (thats at Wantirna)
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In the past I've owned some peyote and san pedro, I loved my peyote too much to eat him, he was large and valuable back in those days when you could still buy it at Gardenworld, and he dissapeared one day when I went away on holidays.
San Pedro is still easy to get around here, I only tried to eat it once and found the effects to be very mild and the flavour totally disgusting (this obviously would benefit from some form of treatment).
Yesterday, while cruising through my favorite trash and treasure market I spotted at least a dozen large plants which I took to be sceletium, not being any sort of expert I bought a couple (only difference appears to be the colour of the flower), I was about to giv'em the "Planthelper" fermentation treatment when I noticed a heap of pods, old and new and then decided to hold off until.
1) I can confirm that they are of a type which will be of some use when exposed to fermentation treatment (i.d. please ed).
2) Confirm weather to hold off until all the immature pods dry out (if they are usefull)
As I don't actually own any webspace real-estate of my own I cannot give a UBB code link to an image other than an index page where I have placed a link to some photos (free webspace has its limitations)(look for the sceletium link), so if you have the time then please let me know your thoughts to the above points. :confused:
P.S. Please dont take the web page too seriously as it still hasn't decided what it wants to become.
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Wanted - Seed
Geebung - Forest(P.silvatica) + any other
Quandongs - Sweet(S.acuminatum), Bitter(S.murrayanum) + others
Fingerlime - any and every
P.M. me, if you can help, will arrange exchange for money or swap. :D
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I did a search, thanx, the smoke is mild
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It is looking more like convolvulus erubescens (blushing bindweed) but unlike the description in the book, it does not have lobed or toothed foliage, foliage varies from ovate to elliptic with entire leaf edges, having noticed something strange while I was posting the image on the web earlier, I went back to the plant and noticed that the foliage which remained in the shade all day long was indeed hairless and polished in appearance whereas the foliage of the same plant which was exposed to sunlight all day long was indeed hairy, contrary to what I wrote earlier.
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Hey guys, thanx for the response, there seems to be a bit of interest in this one.
Firstly, I cannot tell you its latin name, my books have several similar plants listed, all close but none that is definitive.
If you have a copy of Tim Low's "Bush Medicine" pp198-199 then the picture there is the closest but the one I have does not have those fine hairs, Tim Low suggests that it has mildly narcotic leaves, I have some drying in the shed and will no doubt find out, what dissapoints me is the lack of information about the local traditional useage.
If I knew how to then I would include an image here, those who are interested will find a image linked from my main webpage for a short while (please do not take my webpage too seriously as it is constantly changing).
Link is at the bottom of the list
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I understand that this one is smokeable?
Can anyone fill me in on use, how ,when, etc.
I think up north it is called tropical speedwell
and down here in the south we have several varieties.
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My first find of this beast was a motherload or fairy-ring or whatever else you might want to call it but in any case there were about 9 of them all spread closely (within a meter of the trunk) by a half dozen or so Eucalypt trees, this was on a grassland type flat sandy verge on the edge of a more traditional eroded sandy desert type environment.
I remember that it had been a wet season, and in October, when I was there, it was surprising to me to see just how much water there was out there, and how much animal life, I had seen quagmire before but this had been in the Victorian volcanic plains and I had not expected to see it here. The pituri plants themselves were noticably more spindly than I had expected and much more upright in form than what I have seen in supposed photographs illustrating this plant.
I came away all confused, thinking at first that the water brought with it the abundant wildlife, but then if this was true then where does the wildlife come from, it can't just appear overnight after a dozen or so years of drought, can it?. The Australian bush always spins me out.
In any case the site suggested to me shade and protection from frost, the reason I had gone there in the first place was because I had been looking for a shady sheltered environment to spend my mid-day break and that was how I found these plants, I had been out there for almost two weeks looking for this plant but had always expected to find it in more open traditional desert country.
Anyway I hope this gives you a few more clues for selecting a site, as far a germination is concerned I have recently resolved to try again using a more tannin rich sand mixture, however you still have to guess if they germinate after rain or after fire and in what type of temperature range or season.
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Hey Darklight,
Can not help much with the TC, however bright red foliage as shown in pics is not thought to be that unusual.
Toxicity after planting out into soil could have a number or combination of sources, I don’t want to be patronizing to you as I’m sure you have your own experiences with exotics and natives, so I’ll just tell you what little I know and you might get something out of that.
Water - as an alpine species it is unlikely to have had exposure to anything other than the purest rain water, Chlorine and Fluorides are usually only co-conspirators in the demise of your plants, install a rainwater tank and use only rainwater if you can, but this is an expensive and time consuming experiment.
Fertilizer - Some growers recommend NOT feeding natives at all, mountain soils can be naturally deficient in nutrients as these are readily leached out of the soil by the more substantial rainfalls. Phosphorous in particular, in standard fertilizers for garden plants has been known to be too high in concentration for some natives causing toxic reactions.
If you have used commercial charcoal, then it too could be high in phosphorous and other elements, depending on what kind of timber the charcoal was made from.
Soil - If you have used commercial potting mixes of any type whatsoever then it is possible that this plant is susceptible to toxic chemicals from pine bark as many native plants are, pine bark is the basis of almost all commercial potting mixes. Pine bark resin chemicals are known to be deadly toxic to some native plants and often take many years to leach out.
The toxicity of pine bark has recently become THE major suspect for the demise of many of my failed plants, I had serious toxicity problems with some native and exotic orchids for many years, then had a complete turn around when I stopped potting up with premium grade orchid mix (based on pine bark) and replaced this with soils built up from local materials, I now feel ready to retry many formerly failed seed germination experiments.
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My intuition keeps screaming “fermentation product” at me whenever I consider cured pituri, this however is beyond my abilities to investigate.
More on lime, I distinctly remember my travels throughout PNG and the Solomon Islands and the effects of lime on those people.
Stage one was a complete reddening of the inside of the mouth and teeth, as if every cell was under attack, like if someone had been chewing those red choo-choo bars for hours. (So what is in the red lime paste?)
By stage two the teeth had turned completely black.
Stage three showed the teeth to be corroded away to black stumps.
And the final stage was no teeth at all, I wish I had been more of a photographer back then.
Several years ago, I wrote an article for a local journal, on the historical use of plaster and lime putty in the trade of stonemasonry over several millennia, It became apparent to me back then through my research that the hydration of lime cycle is not immediate and never really complete, and that the best quality lime putties in statuary works for example was that from the oldest putty (left covered in water for decades and regularly agitated), Other references showed examples of ancient monuments where they were disassembled for modification to the building only to find that the lime putty used as mortar had still not fully hydrated after being a part of the masonry for centuries.
I am further reminded that in poorer tropical countries the corpses of people who had died as a result of infectious diseases were covered in lime in order to accelerate and aid in the decomposition of the corpse. Lime, it appears, retains the capacity to dehydrate living cells for many years after it has been slaked (mixed with water).
In considering ash, all I see is chemicals of the same periodic group and am left wondering as it certainly felt corrosive on my very sensitive teeth, and yes this was the carfully prepared ash of the sand hill wattle.
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From what I recall the cured stuff was less unpleasant with an almost sweet or ripened aftertaste.
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Hey Thelema
I was unaware of this report, Ive been looking at native plants with activity and have several that show promise, I think the problem is we dont have the resources to investigate the matter further without giving the show away.
One plant species Ive been looking at with great interest for some years is the humble acacia, yep!, the one we all take for granted, THE premiere Astralian bush survival food (Acacia Tears).
Down here in the south east of the continent we have the two alpine acacias which have been shown to contain DMT in the bark as well as the typical high levels of tannic acid, I am not familiar with DMT and do not know if it will relieve pain also.
Many people may not be aware that the tan-bark industry sustained the Australian economy at the turn of the last century. That is until the South Africans stole our plants, set up plantations and outdid us with cheap slave labour, ohhh, so cunning.
Tannic acid itself is of interest when it comes to injury, one might automatically not associate treatment of a wound with an acid, but in England during WWII tannic acid was the one treatment they had which worked on the burns victims who were able to survive.
However the one overwelming thing that made me think of acacia when I read your article was the knowledge that the wet or damp sap of one local acacia was used in traditional Aboriginal medicine to treat open wounds, it is also known that the bark of this same acacia was used to stun fish.
It is quite likely by my reconning that there be whales out there yet. This is the Lightwood tree (Acacia implexa), very difficult to distinguish from Blackwood tree (A.melanoxylon), Lightwood flowers in the summer/autum as oposed to winter/spring for Blackwood, I will update my web site in a few months with fotos of the pod as this is the only other way to differentiate for sure, the pod of the Lightwood is long and wriggly like that of the Blackwood but the funicle on the seed of the Blackwood is red and encircles the seed, whereas the funicle of the Lightwood is white and folded beneath the seed.
It is likely also with this being only one of some 900 members of this species that there are a number of acacias yet to be discovered or rediscovered.
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Where Pituri is concerned I did a lot of study years ago concerning the plant and its applications, prior to going out and searching for it.
Back then I recall my greatest fear was mucking things up by not being able to cure the harvest, as I had read that this was an important part of preparation.
I remember reading that the herb was buried, and or baked.
My culinary forays into Aboriginal cuisine lead me to suspect that this curing process involved nothing more than rapping the herd in a paper-bark bundle, then burying the package in a fire place with hot coals and sand and leaving it for a few days.
Stories of storage caves, may have had more to do with the aging of the herb than the simple hording of it, where else do you come across a story of an Aboriginal hording anything?.
Having had access to both cured/aged pituri as well as the fresh dry herb there appears to be a marked difference in effects, not that I was ever that regular a user, but I believe this too should be sounded out.
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I am a newbie to this site and am only now catching up with some threads of interest.
I was interested to hear that pituri was available at EB3.
I went out into the desert some decades ago now in search of this beastie, and after some near death experiences managed to aquire it.
I learned to avoid both ash and lime, I have found both to be extremely corrosive on the teeth.
Much experience was gained sailing around PNG and the Solomon Islands where many young people no longer have teeth by their mid teens, this was lime/betel nut.
Yeh, smoking it wasnt too bad, I stuck a hand full in a bottle of Gin, and took that down to the Waterstock Music Festival some years ago, educational.
Tolerance seems to be reduced after time, ash and lime are thought to be inconsequential then.
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I remember seeing Nick the Dick (Cave) there before he went off to England and got his bad seeds.
I actually used to go there to see my friends play in the Editions and Second Editions once the Editions got banned.
Now days they all hang out at the Greyhound on the Nepean Hwy and call themselves the Fuck Fucks, Shonky Tonks or just Freddy and the Fuckanuckle Choir.
Harkening back to Fitzroy St, I had some times there, I once recall picking up a young lady with rather large sweat glands, she seemed more wasted than I, and the first words which passed her lips were, "Do you want a free suck?"
How was I to know she was playing pool with a bulge of her own in her centre pocket?
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Hey Yum
Ifn you dont like chems then try bug squash, bug squash is an old remedy that works great.
Bug Squash Recipe:
Collect bugs and put them through a blender.
Add 9 parts water to 1 part squash.
Place in atomiser and spray affected plants.
The theory is that bugs dont like to eat their own kind
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I only discovered this website today and was pleasantly surprised that there is such an interest in local ethnobotanics.
I became interested in the acacia species many years ago when I was mainly interested in the steam bending of local timbers.
At that time I became aware of the toxicity of a desert acacia called Gidgee the saw dust of which causes dermatitis.
More recently I have been building a webpage specifically dealing with bush survival techniques here in the south east of the continent, and as such I have focused some attention on what I believe to be the ultimate bush survival food in Australia that being acaia tears.
More recently still, I have become aware of the DMT content of certain alpine acacias and have done much soul searching and many trials to assure myself that I was not encouraging people to poison themselves by eating acacia tears.
The original fish poison as used by the Australian Aborigines was neither of the alpine species mentioned above but instead Lightwood (A. implexa) and while the inner bark of the tree causes fish to be stupified and float to the surface, the fresh sap or unhardened tears where used to dress open wounds as you might use unpasturised honey today.
This does not necessarily mean that the bark is poisonous, as I know that many toxins which affect humans do not affect birds and animals and vice versa.
At the same time I know that I can use lime instead of lightwood along the seashore, this is made by baking coral and sea shells, and it too has the same affect on the fish in a rock pool or billabong, in this case the lime sucks the oxygen out of the water and the fish in the pool asphixiate and float to the surface, is this poison?.
If you check out my website in about a months time, you will find the section dealing with acacia much expanded and updated, however it will forever be a work in progress.
I am not aware of what chemical is responsible for the activity on the fish, however the Aborigines would not have used this if they knew of toxic effects to themselves.
Giving up the evil weed
in Australian Native Plants
Posted
A gnome I know was recently forced to modify his tobacco smoking habits due to financial constraints, the tax man and several other facists came looking to get blood from his stone and he found to his dismay that for a little while he was flat broke and could not afford his $60 a week tobacco smoking habit, so like a clever little gnome he went looking through his stash of all things wonderfull that he had secreted away in many magic glass caverns over the years being mindfull that the withdrawal from such a habit may cause some whaling and gnashing of teeth.
It is now 3 weeks since he had his last smoke of tobacco and although he can now afford it again he is reluctant to go back to his evil ways, as he had tried to give it up voluntarily many times in the past without success and just accidentally found a way to beat it using a painless alternative, so he asked me to post this topic being mindfull that others wishing to do likewise may not neccesarily have access to the same alternatives, however he wants to put it out there as he feels he has made some interesting and unexpected observations along the way.
Whithout thinking twice, he began this unplanned adventure by opening the magic glass cavern containing pituri which he had not even glanced at for well over a decade and did this with an incantation of the magic words "Duboisia Hopwoodii", thinking at the time that the nicotine contained therein would be a wonderfull way to forget the tobacco pangs as he had not originally intended to give up smoking in the traditional sence and so he took to experimenting with various ways of smoking the herb as he did not wish to chew it and does not know of any way to make a self-adhesive pituri patch.
This herb is said to contain far larger doses of nicotine than tobacco and after about a week of smoking pituri straight he began to form a few interesting observations.
1) He had been dealing with two different addictions all along, the addiction to the habit of smoking was as stong as the addiction to the nicotine, these became seperable when substituting pituri for tobacco.
2) The nicotine in the pituri was not as strong, or not the same, or not as addictive as that in tobacco despite the fact that it is said to contain huge amounts of nicotine as well as nor-nicotine, it did not satisfy the same craving as tobacco normally does but did substitute a similar gratification, so that when he really needed to, he could get some gratification which in itself was non-addictive or at least far less addictive, this was discovered on one occasion when some tobacco was smoked by accident without having realized that he had all but beaten the addiction to tobacco nicotine when this happened.
3) A lesser observation was that the flavour of pituri was less palatable, almost like smoking gum leaves and took a little getting used to.
4) After weening himself off tobacco for almost 3 weeks he became aware of the fact that he was actually getting a bigger nicotine hit by getting second hand smoke than the hit from smoking pituri first hand.
5) He has since been experimenting with other smokable herbs in combination with the pituri but has not as yet found a suitably aromatic replacement for the rum & wine flavoured tobacco whose flavour he used to love.
6) He now smokes about 5 pituri smokes a day, more out of boredom or habitual addiction than from chemical addiction, whereas 3 weeks ago he was smoking between 40 and 50 STRONG tobacco cigarettes each day, and the only time he gets that pang of addiction in his solar plexus now is when he gets a whif of tobacco cigarette smoke from a second hand source.
7) The glass cave is now coming down towards empty and the gnome is considering the options of another desert trek or perhaps a smokable alternative for the sake of the habbit.
Keep tuned to this station, experiment is continueing.