Duboisia hopwoodii (pituri) and D. myoporoides growlog

[Bush Turkey]

pulled from wiki

"Only those plants found in the Mulligan River area are used as these have a greater quantity of nicotine, in contrast to plants from other areas which contain more poisonous nornicotine and are used for animal poison"

where is Mulligan river??? eastern SA????

I should of had a look when i crossed the border

[poisonshroom]

The only mulligan river I can find on google maps is in western QLD, a couple of hundred Km west of Longreach.

Update coming soon

[LokStok]

Another Mulligan River, also known as Eyres Creek in SA here:

http://travelingluck.com/Oceania/Australia/South+Australia/_2065387_Mulligan+River.html#local_map

[Torsten]

same Mulligan river. it drains from Qld into SA into Lake Eyre. The pituringa area is only about 300km (north south) by 200km (east west). It starts about 200km (??) north of the SA border I think and hugs the NT border. It takes in 3 cattle stations. I managed to travel around and through about a quarter of that area in 2 days. One of the most exciting things I've ever done [not just because of the pituri, but all the other stuff I saw].

btw, I had plants growing real well, but suddenly in mid january when the humidity spiked the stems burst and the plants died. Mine were grown from cuttings and suckers sourced in the mulligan river area.

[Bush Turkey]

awesome! Thanks T! I will have to go for a look on my way back from EGA.

EDIT:

There has to be another area apart from mulligan river with the same amount of nicotine?

i doubt all areas have been tested??? have they??

somewhere around the WA goldfields would be prime for conditions for growing them

Edited November 27, 2011 by Bush Turkey

[poisonshroom]

Not sure if any others have the same nicotine content as Mulligan river specimens, and I think there has even been speculation that the nicotine content may even be from how it is prepared traditionally. Its hard to tell unless there were any papers published about it (havnt heard of any).

Update time

This is how the all looked on the 9th of december after repotting to 20cm pots.

As you can see this one has stayed tiny (probably from root damage early on), but is still seemingly alive and well. Hopefully the extra space will help it recover and catch up.

I sent one to danshaman who won the auction I held before I repotted them. And this poor feller was supposed to go to Torsten, but it quickly wilted and started losing leaves after I potted it down a size (not long after putting into a bigger pot).

The one that was put into the big terracotta pot early on is clearly loving it.

And here are the D. myoporoides which will be put into larger pots soon as well:

The one at the front was kept in a fairly sunny position near most of my cacti, and had red spider mites before I took the picture (all of them got a good blast of water on top and under the leaves) and the others had some mealies and look like they've been attacked by grasshoppers. Those ones were growing in a more shaded area under the canopy of some of my larger potted plants, and the grass and weeds have grown up around them to nearly the same height, which is whats bringing the bugs (especially grasshoppers) to them.

The pituri also seem to get hassled by mealies, but nowhere near as bad as the D. myoporoides do.

It will be interesting to see how they all go now that the wet season is here (the humidity and heat are right up, and we are starting to get a lot of evening and early morning storms)

Edited December 12, 2011 by poisonshroom

[IndianDreaming]

How are these going now PoisonShroom?

[poisonshroom]

All dead now =[ the humidity in summer killed them. they all started wilting then the leaves fell off and that was it.

I still have plenty of seed to try again when i get more GA-3. I was in Boulia earlier in the year, and didnt realize out tudy area (i didnt realize at the time) was only about 50km from the mulligan river, and if i had of mentioned it at the pub (i was there every night too) someone could have shown me where to find them and possibly given me a sample oh well. And i agree with torsten in that those outback desert bordering areas are really interesting places, and i had a great time at boulia

[IndianDreaming]

That's really unfortunate PS! I found 10 seeds in my seed box when I pulled it out to dust it off for spring so I'm going to try again. I had 30 seeds and got 2 out of 20 to sprout, but I had to go away for a long weekend when they were only at their second leaves and my housemate missed watering them..

I have some GA3 - if you shoot me a pm I'll send you some. It'd be great to see this plant in the community since it's roots run so deep in Australian history.

[Meditator]

Hey I just ordered some GA3 and pituri seeds from herbalistics, If I can I will make a grow log.

[BreakingBarrett]

I thought I would chime in on the discussion of d.hopwoodii alkaloid variation, due to specific location, with this article I came across http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1951AuSRA...4..107B

It's probably quite outdated, but I found it to be an interesting read and I am unsure if it has been posted on this site before.

Also, I live in a region that is surrounded by d.hopwoodii - 40km in from the NSW/SA border (NSW side) - and will try the supposed traditional method of preparing it as well as slow drying it to see if makes much of a difference (obviously in very small amounts).

Edited October 19, 2013 by BreakingBarrett

[poisonshroom]

Ah yes - Iv seen that article a few times now (Im currently doing an essay on pituri actually ). There really arent too many new articles out there as far as Iv found, with the most recent being from the early 80's (I may have missed some though), and most of them seem to confirm the older articles, with the oldest ones to indicate nicotine AND nornicotine being present being from the early 20th century (1910 I believe is the earliest mention).

Ill be interested to hear how it goes. Keep in mind though, from the literature the only ones found not to contain any nicotine were from South Australia (and I think NT). Its still an interesting subject even though there has been some reasonable extensive work done on it already (as far as alkaloid content goes anyway)

[bℓσωηG]

nice read pdf here ,

http://lib-ojs3.lib.sfu.ca:8114/index.php/era/article/view/589/381

be cool to visit these plants in their habitat for some seed fossicking

[Atropanthe]

Very nice link bℓσωηG! Thank you for sharing.