Guerilla legalities

[Rev]

The Jobs in ethnobotany thread made me think

If for example someone lived in a nice tropical or subtropical town in Australia and noticed their street had just been planted out with a avenue of trees like the leichardt tree (nauclea orientalis) and the smart person on the street knew that in November having Kratom on his/her property would be illegal

Then it would be a pretty cool thing to start replacing these Naucleas or whatever as soon as possible with Kratom

this would be handy to take the dog for a walk gathering a pocketful of fallen leaves (for your pet rabbit) or just raking the verge outside teh house after a strong breeze

The same situation might occur with Catha or Vilca in a different climate

and itd be nice to beautify the median strip with a number of other suitable ornamentals

and technically not on your property

[ 26. July 2004, 06:08: Message edited by: reville ]

[occidentalis]

Absolutely

A couple of years ago I was involved in a guerilla gardening action. We ran around the city planting local natives in all the beds outside the office buildings. I managed to get a banksia in the ground in central park which stayed there for a couple of months but was obviously removed eventually.

Especially with things like Catha, Acacia and kratom, if you have a normal suburban block there's probably only room for a couple of plants. It's easy to grow ten or fifty Acacia seedlings. Give some to your mates, plant them in council parks discretely, get them out there - and in a few years come back to harvest.

In a sustainable development unit I did in first year we saw a Bill Mollison video in which he went to a community in california where there were fruit trees planted in all the open spaces. One of the planners was talking about how in uni they were tought never to plant useful plants in public places.

Create an ethnobotanical garden of eden in your suburb!

[Rev]

Railway lines are joy places to discover/encourage useful weeds

Plants found alongside them in some areas include

Argemone mexicana

Papaver setigerum

Peganum harmala

Lactuca sp.

Nicotiana glauca

Cal poppy

A few wattles, other poppies and leonotis would be welcome im sure

[mescalito]

Cool idea!

I was thinking the same could go for fungal transplants into areas with lots of fallen wood to aid in decompostion :D

We have a re-vamped chinese tribute gardens here with some nice looking 'ordinary' plants ,arches,a nice water fall that flows into a huge pond...and I'm thinking 'no water plants??' so I'm planning to drop some lotus seeds in there this spring-I'm sure the caretaker won't mind hehehe..any other 'chinese' plants of interest that I could plant in the gardens themselves?

I might even approach the caretaker and see if he's ok with some donated plants that way I could perform the 'up-keep' .

[Rev]

Its a long shot but heres a few interesting chinese plants (getting them may be some problme however)

Taiwan sassafras (Sassfras randaiense)

Chinese sassafras (Sassafras tzumu)

Ephedra sinensis

Tea

Salvia miltiorhizza Dan sheng (sedative roots)

Sinomenium acutum (morphine like activity)

" Structurally sinomenine can be considered a morphine analog. Its analgesic activity effect is weaker than that of morphine and its duration of action is shorter. Tolerance to this alkaloid develops only after continuous use for a long period; no addiction syndrome has been reported.

The herb is more poten than aspirin as an antiinflamatory agent. It has been suggested that its action is due to stimulation of the hypothalamus-pituatary axis on adrenocorticotropic-hormone secretion.

Other observed actions include a lowering of the blood pressure with little effect on the myocardium. The herb acts on sympathetic ganglia and the central vasomotor center. Additionally, it relaxes smooth muscle and displays an antihistamine effect.

used for rheumatic arthroitis pain. 6 -9 g as decoction

Corydalis sp.

and others

[ 27. July 2004, 10:53: Message edited by: reville ]

[mescalito]

Something else to keep me busy :cool:

So in theory what ethno plants could be assimilated in Australia safely and where would be the best places?

Maybe more useful plants could as you say be planted where problem plants already exist.

What problems would be encountered with 'natural' habitat and what problems could be maybe fixed if any?

Any ideas?

[woof woof woof]

I have been applying some guerillia tactics down here where I live as well. I had to find out which plants would be interesting for a semi arid enviroment. Cacti sprang to mind immediately.

I also found out that M Hostiles wasa good candidate. Since we already have thorn bushes and the native animal life is perfectlt addapted to it I know that Hostiles will not be a threat to them.

Only waiting for the rain season to begin,... which will be in a month or 2.

muhuhahahahhaha muhuauahahha

[Rev]

mescalito:

So in theory what ethno plants could be assimilated in Australia safely and where would be the best places?

Maybe more useful plants could as you say be planted where problem plants already exist.

What problems would be encountered with 'natural' habitat and what problems could be maybe fixed if any?

Any ideas?

keep well away from Remnant bushland

Use up waste space instead like Railway tracks, Urban parklands,Planatation forestry areas,Council plantings and buffer strips, street plantings,The dump, median strips and other urban and rural weedy places

If you know of any useful plants that are actually endemic to your area then you can plant them anywhere.

Exotic spiny plants with red berries are a definite weed concern as are all aquatics

Pretty much the worst weed species are bird spread as they get everywhere even more so than airborne species (more random)

Some species thrive only on disturbance and requite human activity to thrive - mex poppies for example really like earthworks and P somniferum (and weed) thrives near us because of the higher nutrient levels we create

Theres few vegetative weeds that a dose of Glyphosate cant eliminate if they get away on you

[Salviador]

Ive got a friend who works in forests and parks in the council, and he told me that they are trained to identify the specific plants that the council plants and to rip up or poison any others, so perhaps parks are not the way to go, if you value your offspring.

[spaced]

reville:

Railway lines are joy places to discover/encourage useful weeds

Plants found alongside them in some areas include

Argemone mexicana

Papaver setigerum

Peganum harmala

Lactuca sp.

Nicotiana glauca

Cal poppy

A few wattles, other poppies and leonotis would be welcome im sure

Found my first live specimen of Tribulus terrestris growing along a railway line in Collie - between the tracks - its prostrate form giving it a selective advantage.

Back in the time of the steam train, before cars ruled the world, rail was a very important form of transportation in this country. Now we have "road trains." Railway lines and / or the service tracks are great places to go for bike rides. They offer gentle slopes and get you off busy highways. Trains, with all the weight they carry can't scale steep ascents, so you'll often find tracks cut between hills or passing through tunnels. This offers a wide range of microclimates in order to give specific ethnobotanicals a good start. As "logistics" now turns to carting consumer goods, logging products etc via bitumen, more and more abandoned railways are becoming popular walking or cycling destinations. There are a range of good books available for many areas. The Munda Biddi trail linking Perth and Albany utilises various sections of railway trail

http://www.mundabiddi.org.au/

So as you can see you could make for quite an enjoyable vacation doing a bit of a "Johnny Appleseed" - just hop on the bike and sneak some extra seeds in panniers or drinking bottles to disperse at your leisure.

Success would be dictated by good planning. If you're planting seeds then obviously you'd want to go before or during the wet season, perhaps giving them a head start

http://www.sproutpeople.com/grow/bits/travel.html

How about scarifying seeds in urine or using bong water to stimulate germination of native species?

The more you know the less you need . . .

On longer trips nothing should go to waste. I've often dissected an applecore to find seeds already germinating. Why not plant them out and graft something onto the rootstock, next time you're out that way.

No doubt there's those who will object and perhaps with good reason where weedy plants are concerned. But after they've been riding or walking all day I don't think anyone would object to sitting down to a free meal of fruit, vegetables and medicinals.

Guerilla gardening offers an attractive alternative to younger people who perhaps aren't ready to or can't afford to settle down and have a garden of their own, yet whose philanthropic ambitions extend beyond the boundaries of their budgets. At the moment I'm living in a house surrounded by a sea of pavement and have little alternative.

[Rev]

Its a funny ethical area

I would personally think that an apple,almond,pomegranate, pear or apricot tree scatterred through the perth hills isnt going to hurt the integrity of the system

The poor soil, bushfires and wrong climate limit most exotic fruits

Its a hard call though unless trained in weed risk assessment

Plums and Olives ive seen get away in the adelaide hills though on a significant scale.

Anyway im sure theres plenty out in the bush to start with - we just have to find out what it is

[Ed Dunkel]

Anyone see the picture in P Stamets - Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World.

A hat covered with spore prints of P. cubensis?

That could be a nice thing to do, cover your hat with all sorts of psilocybe spore prints and wonder around the place releasing a waft of millions of spores behind you, sticking on to people, animals and the surroundings.

(but I would place the spore prints on the underside of the caps, so that the UV doesn't get to them as much)

Just a side note, I was thinking it could be a cool thing to plant some spare Catha plants near Somalie, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Yemen etc... communities in the city. Or maybe donate a plant or two to there community garden projects.

They might even return your gratitude with inviting you for a Khat chewing session!!! They could teach you a bit about cultivation, preparation/pruning and the culture surrounding it.

[ 10. August 2004, 19:27: Message edited by: Ed Dunkel ]

[Rev]

or strike up some cuttings to sell to a grocer catering to their needs and let them spread them around the city

[occidentalis]

As far as spreading weeds goes, the problem is that most things that you could plant and leave for a year will probably go weedy. Things that won't go weedy will need a bit of attention.

Don't plant anything from similar environments - eg in Perth avoid South African, Californian or mediterranean species. If you plant anything in the bush, come back and check regularly to see if it's spreading in the near vicinity. Don't plant anything that's a bugger to get out - pulling african box thorn is not fun and most bulb or rhizomatous plants are out. If it's an environment that is often hit by fire, avoid species that will be advantaged by this - this is often the bulbs or other geophytes.

[Salviador]

Update on person from parks and wildlife. If you plant trees that look like natives or are natives but arent what has been trained to identify, chances are they wont poison it just in case they get in trouble.

Also! look for places with long grass, ie signs of ill maintenance, or a bunch of trees that have branches lower than 4 foot or so.

[Rev]

you are right about the bulbs creach i forgot those suckers

boxthorn fits the spiney with red berries danger sign to a tee

Many annual plants we are interested in, and some short lived perrenials are colonisers of disturbance not intact ecosystems

mex poppy and wild lettuce are good examples

they spring up after disturbance and last 1 or two seasons then die out

except on railway tracks or roadsides with constant disturbance

I recall reading that the genus erythroxylum is also in this category as a short lived coloniser of disturbed ground

[gomaos]

I also think parks aren't a good idea, as long as there may be a caretaker who has an eye for plants, he will destroy any that he doesn't know or want...

I've been thinking about this thing too, plant out kratom or anandenanthera, but what a waste if some council dumbfuck comes a long and destroys it... these people just gotta have "order"(vomit)all the time...

[Rev]

Gom i think in Bris you might get away with Kratom in a rainforest planting for certain

and anadenanthera looks ALOT like several species of ferny (bipinnate) legume they already use for street tree plantings

who knows they may already have planted anandenathera around bris and we havent recognised it cos they are too big

after all they are now using Tabebuia species widely and these seem to all originate from some directive of the mt Coot-tha or bris botanic gardens that recommends them as street trees

They are from the same region and climate as anadenanthera

Anadenanthera does so well in the ground from nthn nsw into qld (except at mt Coot-tha which is a mystery) and would make such a good parkland amenity tree with light shade that allows grass growth underneath and a pretty lime green foliage and yellow ball flowers

Its also hardy to drought and frosts to at least -7

so long as its importance as an ethnobotanical stays low it could be promoted/sold widely for this purpose

[ 11. August 2004, 15:57: Message edited by: reville ]

[MrBumpy]

Reville : so any examples of plants that would be suitable to try plant near Mt Coot-tha. Considering I live at the very base of it

-bumpy

[Rev]

Some people have all the luck!

For you maybe you could actually assist them by donating plants for proper inclusion in the plantings

Capi, Tabernaemontana orientalis, Psychotria carthagenensis, Kratom, Catha edulis, Nelumbo nucifera and other tropicals

They already have a nice selection of subtropical and tropical plants of interest

If you can warm them up to the idea id be happy to donate a few plants their way

[gerbil]

I wonder if chance of survival is increased against councils etc, by gathering the plastic humidity/wind break tents they use when planting out seedlings/small trees etc.

Gather them with the bamboo stakes that go with them, there should be plenty around in some areas, especially past/present drought areas which have had many plants die off, and plant things up in them.

Once they do get older it's probably back to ID to destroy, though if they are in the little plant tents, maybe they have a better chance of being overlooked? For a little while at least.

I'd love to see caapi go wild in the suburbs, would look fabulous, wonder about the environmental cost though. In melbourne growth should be slowed down a little, i can't really think of negative effects, besides something like a disease etc. but even backyard cultivation could spread that i guess, if something like that does exist.

hmmmmm :confused:

[Torsten]

I always assumed caapi to be relatively safe for any area south of brisbane as it's vegetative spread could be controlled easily enough. In the tropics this seems to be not enough as we found with plants growing in Cairns. Apparently in Hawaii some of the older vines have now escaped uncontrollably into the forest as well.

I heard yesterday that there is a huge caapi vine in our area that is flowering for the first time this year. If it produces seed at this latitude then it may well become a weed even in this area.

[gerbil]

It's a bit hard thinking ahead to what problems it may cause, but if caapi does go weedy in that area, do you think it would threaten other species or have a negative impact on the environment?

I'm not too familiar with seeing it in cultivation or in the wild, so i'm not sure if it would choke plants and trees, or just work it's way around and up them, maybe a little of both?

If it does get out of hand, there would be plenty of people willing to go out hunting for it, and cutting many vines down. Will probably be quite beneficial in that sense hehe

Would also be very interesting seeing how variable the chemical makeup is at differet lattitudes, esp. in colder climates like victoria.

Apparently in Hawaii some of the older vines have now escaped uncontrollably into the forest as well.

It looked to be going well on McKennas jungleish property there, must be jammed full of it now.