everywhen

This is an interesting point you raise. I feel that the two meets that I have been able to make so far have had a certain relaxed atmosphere to them, im not sure how well this would be retained if we were to make it too public. I agree with the idea of trying to get more people, but not sure if some forms of advertising would bring people just trying to get a cheap "high". But then again perhaps it is better to educate these people properly about the plants.

yeah I've been meaning to start a thread about Splendour. I am definitely keen on going, getting my ticket for my birthday and in the process of convincing more friends to make the trek (from adelaide). I'd be looking at the camping option, possibly spending a week or so beforehand in Byron to enjoy the local culture... It all sounds like a good excuse to come and check out Byron to me. I'll post a bit more coherently when I get more time, gotta head off to my birthday bbq thingy now...

"Laws are being enacted across America that enable individual pharmacists to refuse to give birth control if it conflicts with their personal beliefs." eek! seems to be part of a growing trend over there towards religious fundamentalism... http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...setogiveoutpill

Was the irony of having the mushrooms on a newspaper booze ad placed just above your signatute intentional?

Yeah its a bit hard to tell when they arent that dry, but breaking the stems carefully looks like they are made up of strands that go the length of the stem. I just noticed there are quite a few blue specks on the stems as well, and the inside of one of them stems looks very much like it is made up of rather large fibres.

Well I went and gave the hills a shot again, and there were a fair few species still growing. I only found one small patch resembling what I beleive may have been P. Subs. They were about 8-10 small diameter (mostly around 1.5-3 cm diameter), with yellow tops (a deeper brown in the more mature speciments). The stems were quite white, and after a few days the gills are now rather brown. They began to stain blue around the edges within a few minutes of picking them. When I cut the stems I noticed they were not hollow - I thought I had read somewhere that Subs had hollow stems. Apart from this I can't really match them to any other lookalike species. They were growing on some quite damp grass about 3-4 metres away from a reasonably dense pine/eucalyptus scrub area. I noticed that the gills are reasonably close together, and seem to curve upwards towards the centre, eg they are a lot taller nearer the stem than they are on the edge. There are also reasonably long browny-grey streaks on the stems, and the spores after a few days now appear a dark browny-purple (this may not be such a good indication after this length of time). Cheers. [ 05. July 2004, 13:48: Message edited by: everywhen ]

I went up about a month ago at what would have been the start of the season, and saw an absolute abundance of all sorts of mushrooms, including a ton of very impressive Amanitas up near the Mt Lofty Summit. I went back the other day down a bit further near Crafers, and there seemed to be hardly any of any mushroom species. So could it just be a bad area I looked at, or is the mushroom season in the Adelaide hills pretty short? I might go up to the summit again tomorrow and have another look. Just was wondering if the mushrooms only come out once a year and spread spores to lay dormant for the next year. Cheers.

hehe next time then

well i almost made it to the last meet was like half an hour late and wandered around the botanic gardens but couldnt see anyone much (the weather was pretty poor). i was pretty keen on buying some plants so if any adelaideans that had stuff for sale were interested in selling some stuff (particuarly interested in the catci), please pm me. otherwise i will *try* to make it to the next meet.

then more mushies will grow!

yep me too - work wont be able to crop up this time (final weekend before uni exams). should be a good break from second year mathematics... cya's all there

Blue staining seems to be one of the best methods for a newbie like me to distinguish between the different species, but do any of the other "lookalike" species also stain blue? After much searching today the best I found was a small yellow mushrooms similar to the one posted to The Shroomery: Shroomery Image It has a thinner stem, but otherwise is similar, and also stained noticeably blue around the edges over about half an hour after picking. So it looks a lot like a P. Sub, is the blueing test definitive or do other species also stain blue? (I wasn't able to find an answer after searching erowid and The Shroomery). Thanks heaps, I'll post photos when I get access to a digicam again. Happy shrooming all.

wow. im impressed at the number of fast responses, i didnt realise so many people used this site. i dont think its likely to be successful with the folks, one option would be to try the post office method (im in metro adelaide so no real issue there), and then try and recruit some friends to the hobby. i was thinking more along the lines of some of the online sites to get seeds/cacti/etc from and go from there. i'll try and make it along to the next adelaide meet, hopefully work wont interfere - how did it go down? and strangebrew, yep, the album version of the song was actually recorded on the same day as my birthday. (which incidentally was yesterday )

i went for a wander in the adelaide botanic gardens a few weeks back looking for what the different types of plants looked like. as soon as i entered i saw atropa belladona and brugsmansia, however found nothing else. i'd guess your botanic gardens might be helpful also - im pretty sure the ones here did in fact have seeds/fruit/whatever on them, so your guess about the season is correct. they sound a pretty crazy plant from erowid. more the kind of thing you'd do with your friends and laugh like hell at the stories afterwards. alone would be somewhat scary indeed.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed before, but I think it's a situation others may have been in. In the last few months I've done rather extensive reading of erowid, and now have a friend who is rather keen at having a shot a growing some of the plants mentioned on these pages. The only issue is he lives at home, and whilst its not illegal to grow the plants (cacti, etc), it would be rather difficult to come up with a good excuse for a footlong cactus to arrive on the doorstep one day. Is Australia Post or similar able to hold packages for people (surely they would have to for backpackers), a small charge is alright. Alternatively, is there the ultimate excuse anyone can come up with for a maths student suddenly wishing to grow cacti? Cheers.