tripsis

Looks like the prolifera varieties you see in some cacti and succulents.

Nice, those are some decent sized cacti there. I wonder what else they'll have?

Hm, not a great result. Pretty dicey form of healing. Is that an AFP report?

Would like to, I never get out to the NYE ones, but this will be no exception. Raz will be awesome!

Awesome pics man, love the way they burst out from the areoles like that.

Yeah, I'm feeling the same way. I love this country, for its land and environment, but the culture is becoming suffocating and disturbingly dangerous for those that don't see eye to eye with our power hungry government.

Kyphosus fuscus is a dream fish native to Australia, found near Norfolk Island. It is closely related to the silver drummer too. Could it have been that you actually caught K. fuscus? Very interesting report at any rate. Can you detail anymore of the experience?

Thanks for confirming cop-outs do exist in this world and that they'll always seek an easy way out.

Nice photos man! I really appreciate when people bother to take good photos and use a bit of creativity too.

Bloody hell! That thing is a monster! If I were you, I'd bite off more than I could chew and deal with the repercussions later. Get it man!

Maybe this is the way the world is going to go...

Your argument appears to be weakening. Provenance does have a basis in sound, logical reasoning, but it is far from faultless. Taking Acacia A from 500km away and mixing it with another Acacia A population is perhaps not a good idea, as intraspecific genetic diversity is just as important as interspecific genetic diversity. Mixing genepools of different populations often leads to a reduction in the diversity of alleles, the alternative versions of genes found on chromosomes at the same locus. One allele may have a higher ability to fight disease, for example, than the other allele at the same locus. If the number of alleles is reduced, then the ability for a species as a whole to overcome adversity is potentially also reduced. There has to be limits for how far to take the idea of provenance and that comes down to common sense and proper research. Maybe easier in theory than practice. The point is though, that you cannot dismiss it out of hand without understanding why people become so passionate about it. No, provenance has little to do with the use of herbicides. It is a concept for keeping genetically distinct populations separate from one another. A weed is a plant out of place. If we bring Acacia saligna to the east coast and it goes rampant, then it is a weed. Just because it is native to the country of "Australia" doesn't make it native to an area 4000km from where it has evolved. It's a long way for a plant to travel under natural circumstances. If adapted to conditions similar to where it is from, it will do well and compete with the plants native to the region it is brought to. Sure, plants, like every other organism, may have the opportunity to travel and set up new populations naturally, but not on the scale or with the speed in which it is happening presently. Much like climate change, although you probably give that no credibility either. At least you are anti-agrochem companies. Our erosion and water pollution issues do not stem from weed control outside of agriculture, it would be erroneous to say so. By far the greatest contributors to erosion are over-grazing, poor agricultural practices and deforestation. Water pollution comes from many factors, amongst them the use of pesticides and herbicides, mostly in agriculture. I would think that use of agrochems outside of agriculture is relatively minimal when compared to the quantities used in convention farming techniques. I would much rather die from cancer from trying to fight for what I believe in, than grow fat and old for having been an apathetic cop-out. I don't like poisons at all, but they are often the best method available. Yeah, sadly if a plant has enough economic value it will be grown on mass anyway. I doubt it comes down to scientific reason in the end, rather a monetary one. Olives are a noxious weed, but because they have such high economic value, they are grown anyway. Since this is the case, all we can do is try to prevent them from invading surrounding ecosystems and causing damage there. This country is rife with contradictory laws, but it doesn't make them all bullshit.

With censorship looming, use of VPNs looks like it'll be the way to go. Can anyone recommend a list of good VPNs which they have used? Also, what do people think of proxies?

Wow, botanika, your words really invoke thought. This country has become so controlled in so many ways it's disturbing. Every facet of life is governed and dictated by people I don't respect and laws I don't agree with. I love this land so damned much, but if it keeps progressing like this, I don't want to live here. I don't want the weight of laws and penalties weighing upon me when I see them as completely unjust and wrong. To think that soon just being on a forum like this could be treated as a criminal offense is almost unthinkable. China is one of the last places I would have thought as being freer than Australia, but it goes to show just how fucked up it has become here.

Something strange is happening with this Loph. Around a week or so ago I noticed a hole forming at the apex of it, where the ribs meet and the new growth appears. It has slowly but steadily got larger, then a couple of days ago the end of the ribs began rotting away. The rot wasn't the sort of rot where you'd expect it to overtake the entire plant though, it looked more like apoptosis as a line appeared where the rot stopped and then the dead tissue just shrivelled up. When looking closely, you can inside the plant, where it looks quite hollow. As you can see, there appears to be a concentration of areoles inside the centre of the hole. Is this a new offset emerging or something else?

It's a bitter joke that Australia is considered a democracy. Seems more akin to a dictatorship to me. Since the tyrannical rule of Howard, this country has been steadily losing it freedoms and rights that once made it such a good country to be in.

It's all well and good for you to cut down anything said against your views as "research paid by the agro chem companies" but that doesn't make it so. Give me evidence to support your claims and perhaps you'll have some credibility. Yep, seems plausible. Remember that in many coastal areas, there are no decent sized trees, everything is stunted by harsh environmental conditions. Bitou can reach heights of several metres and easily drown out any small shrubs and flora regenerating from fire. An ecosystem being totally stripped can happen both naturally (fire) or unnaturally (clearfell). Regardless of the way it happens, weeds being the opportunists they are, become a problem. We already have colonist species that regenerate quickly enough to stabilise an area after destruction, we don't need weeds to do that. This country has evolved with fire since the Aboriginals came, so the flora has adapted to be able to do this sort of thing, but in a way that promoted biodiversity, not reduce it. Yes, I understand the irony of that last sentence, but at least a biodiverse equilibrium was created with the Aboriginals. The same cannot be said for the current culture on this continent. I've worked with and seen more bitou than I care for. There are plants amongst the monocultures, but they are definitely not regenerating naturally, they are slowing dying from lack of light. Coastal species are not rainforest species, they have not evolved to germinate in low-light conditions, sitting there statically waiting for the opportunity to come where an opening appears and they can grow. No, they live in areas of high light intensity. Underneath bitou is anything but. The plants you will find are seldom seedlings, unless they are seedlings of bitou or lantana. No, most often they are mature plants slowly dying, such as Acacia longifolia var. sophorae. They cannot compete with the quick growth habit and size of the likes of bitou and lantana. Wrong again. I can't deny your experience that you may have seen something similar before, but that is not what is commonly practised. More often than not, poisoning techniques employed are very labour intensive and plant specific. Cutting and poisoning and drilling and poisoning meet both the former criteria. Neither method lends itself to poisoning the native plants as each plant is individually identified and then poisoned by a single person, not by machinery. Poison the land? Poison the groundwater? What poisons are you thinking of here? What practises are you thinking of? This doesn't make it common practice. So it's happened before, it means very little. Housing development is a ruthless and powerful movement. They don't need the excuse of weeds to develop. They can clearfell areas of ecological significance and only incur petty fines. Once cleared, the area is no longer of worth and they are good to go. Okay, I'll play your game. The Burdekin Dry Tropics receives around 800mm - 1000mm in its coastal areas. Lantana grows there, as does bitou bush. But more than 1000mm of rainfall doesn't make it rainforest, as you are implying. Yet lantana thrives in areas that are not rainforest, in any way or form. To argue that weeds are not the problem and that they only colonise disturbed areas is flawed. We will always be disturbing areas. Does that mean we should follow your lead, throw our hands in the air and hail weeds as saviours? Even if there were areas that would never be disturbed by us, weeds would still make there way there. As stated above, bitou does have the ability to invade undisturbed areas.

You are wrong on so many points WD that it isn't even remotely funny. I can't be bothered arguing with someone so dogmatic on views that are completely incorrect. I will however point out how foolish your last comments were. Bitou bush protecting regenerating vegetation? I have no idea where you found such a ridiculous idea from, but you couldn't be more incorrect if you tried. Yes, bitou bush stabilises dunes. But so did the bush that existed before it took over. Bitou bush is not a kind weed, there's a reason it's in the list for the top 20 noxious weeds in this country. There is no possible way that bitou bush would protect regenerating bush. It would wipe it out. It creates monocultures by drowning out everything else. Even on Lion Island, which has never been developed and is protected from the public using it for any reason, currawongs and other fruit eating birds have brought the seeds of both bitou and lantana to the island. The bush there would have been fairly undisturbed before the weeds set it. But even in that relatively undisturbed set of ecosystems, these two weeds have taken hold and are killing the native flora. It is weren't for a group of very dedicated individuals working with DECC to reduce the impact of these weeds, the island would be completely overrun by now. Again, with the lantana stabilising ex-rainforext. Yep, roots hold the soil in place, simple fact of life. But just because lantana can do it doesn't make it good. Every single native plant with a root system is fully capable of doing what you are touting as the wonders of lantana and bitou, except that they generally promote biodiversity, not wipe it out. Also, you are incorrect about areas with lantana only being ex-rainforest. Many dry coastal areas are heavily affected too. Doesn't look good, does it? I don't see any native flora amongst that mess. With floral biodiversity goes faunal biodiversity. Again, to drive my point home:

Thanks for the replies. Just followed your advice kada, the wool is firmly attached. I can see inside the plant enough to see that it doesn't appear to be rotting anymore. The rot only last a day or so, enough that the ends of the ribs rotted off and then it stopped. If it plant doesn't rot, what do you predict will happen?

I sure hope so!!

This is incredibly fucked up. I mean, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY?! How the hell did it ever get to this? Rudd is a downright prick, I can't decide if he or Howard is worse, but this sure doesn't feel like a democracy. Oh, they'll traget us alright, no way do they want the spread of drug-related information to flow freely around the place if they have a means to stop it. Yeah, true, they don't stop this kind of thing from hitting the bookshelves, but what does hit th bookshelves is not nearly as easily or freely available as what is on the net.

Fuck this irks me. Invasive weeds cause massive problems for ecosystems and poison can be the only viable way to eliminating them. There are numerous examples of invasive weeds creating monocultures in vast tracts of land, wiping out most of the other flora and fauna that previously inhabited those areas. If you have seen any valleys that are nothing but lantana, or coastline which has been completely overtaken by bitou bush, perhaps you would think differently. People don't own the land, we live on it. "Stealing land off the people"? What the fuck? The land was here before we were, virtually every other species was here before we were. If anything, we steal the land off everything else. It is fortunate for the earth that there are "greenies" around that can see that people don't have the right to fuck up every single ecosystem and fight to preserve and conserve some of what is left. It's fucked up views like yours that perpetuate problems. Stop spreading misinformation, there's enough of it around already. Where can you buy agent orange, eh?

To get this thread moving again, will add the below to the above... VVVVV P. galindoi sporeprint (for microscopy only!) VVVVV

Was just reading about Erythrina spp. on the SAB website. Sounds interesting, albeit dangerous. I've UTFSE and read a fair few thread, but would like to know more. Does anyone have any experience with them, or know of anyone with first-hand experiences? Am interested in both effects and side-effects, especially in regards to higher doses and toxicity. Coral trees grow commonly as a pretty noxious weed around here, although I'm pretty sure they are a hybrid. They can become mono-cultural groves if allowed to, especially around creek lines...

You incense rocks VS, it smells great. Everyone love it.