Pituri (Duboisia hopwoodii) Growing?

[NatureBoy]

I am curious as to a few things about Pituri..

1) this seems to be difficult to germinate the seed from what I can gather. Has there been any progress on knowledge of how to accomplish this?

2) after the plant was past its infant stage, what would be its ideal environment? I read somewhere it likes 'rocky outcrops, the sides of creeks' etc.

but that said it seems to be suited to a minimal rainfall high temperature environment, so would "mallee" or "scrubland" in south australia for instance, be a suitable environment?

[Ed Dunkel]

Yep, seeds is a tricky one to germinate. I hope someone has figured it out yet (without involving a emu or the likes!!!! )

Mallee area would be an ideal place to plant them but a specific mallee environment (ie. soil type, rocky/sandy, near stream, out in the open, near shrub sheltered) I'm not sure of.

Anyone....?

[JumpedAngel]

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.