Botany Nerds Ahoy

Yes. AW I have read about pituri and others,
but yes there are thousands of them,
Then you’ve got Chinese,Indian, African, North and South American, European etc. which often overlap.
And the good thing is most psychoactive herbs have some medicinal properties, and medicinal herbs and spices have psychoactive
properties
too many herbs not enough time.

Yes just tried the
Round leaf mint. ( Prostanthera Rotundifolia)
With some Oolong tea , a bit strong tasting ,
but they seemed to have a boost.
I might try the oolong. , Round leaf mint ,
and the Cinnamon Myrtle mix , to see if there’s an elemicin effect .

Pop Down wrote:

Hey Jules

As you and Alfred would know , there are six varieties of Pittosporum Phylliraeoid native to Australia .

All produce lovely orange fruit that if eaten , sends people Ga Ga , apparently .

The First Nation used one variety for medicine , the Gambi Gambi variety they called it .

If you use the Gambi Gambi in moderation , you will be fine imho !

PopDown. Hi fella.

About time I said hello, well hello.

How’s life at Windsor Castle, keeping the plebiscites at bay from high up on the wall.

I recall you stating you’ve got little room or light for a garden. Is that correct or have I got my facts wrong?

I’d like to chat about making a beautiful and interesting succulent garden, near on zilch effort or water required .

No matter what plants are used you can end up with a little ecological microcosm. AW

geez seeds and AW, that's quite harsh on Pomona, very off the mark I reckon. I'd say your describing that bigger town further up the highway

anyway, back to botany matters - just read that a Phytopthera outbreak has led to closure of at least one of the Glasshouse Mt. trails, probably more to follow. The Bunyas are at risk, some losses in Maleny already. Probably just a sign of the future as more biosecurity threats emerge and impact our lifestyles

GreenJam wrote:

geez seeds and AW, that's quite harsh on Pomona, very off the mark I reckon. I'd say your describing that bigger town further up the highway

anyway, back to botany matters - just read that a Phytopthera outbreak has led to closure of at least one of the Glasshouse Mt. trails, probably more to follow. The Bunyas are at risk, some losses in Maleny already. Probably just a sign of the future as more biosecurity threats emerge and impact our lifestyles

Greenjam. Hi mate. Gympie ?

Tongue firmly planted in cheek re: Pomona.

I’d suggest the future woes for our relictual flora especially in your hilly areas to the west and along those ancient ridges that remain from collapsed calderas is people.
We encourage others to go out and enjoy our biological history, but it can be a double edged sword situation, education is key and having an awareness of how valuable natural treasures are is paramount, but it must come with local and state government communication.

Prominent signage about soil borne and shoe transmitted diseases like you mentioned are key.
Here in Victoria, Cinnamon fungus is a huge problem especially in areas containing heath and grass tree type systems.
A recent observation a few weeks ago on a great walk, I noticed all the old style shoe scrub and wash stations had all been updated and people were actively cleaning their shoes and monitoring any other equipment they carried.

Communication is the key. AW

Hello Alfred

U will be my Knight in Shinning armour if you can turn my balcony into a beautiful and interesting AW art piece .

Gosh , Howard Taylor meets AW :) .

Windsor is great as this end of Chapel St has everything I need .

Op Shops , Tattoo Parlours , bars and Restaurants .

I took a big box of old suits etc to an Oppy up the road and got a haircut with Laura , who is just out from Italy with her boyfriend ( Chippy ) .

She is applying 4 residency so I may have found a LT option .

Met a young NZ Florist on the train today coming back from the city , who is here with her boyfriend .

She bought a 20 year Florist in Brighton that was loosing money .

In her first year she broke even .

She had been in the city to close a new Major Hotel client , as she designs Bug Pieces only and will make a profit in year 2 .

Some wonderful people still want to move here which is great .

My balcony is tiny , 1 by 5 meters and gets 2 hours of afternoon direct sunlight .

I have a charcoal Weber that's rarely used , a Bay leaf bush in a old pot ( making a pasta sauce as I type ) and two Greek Romany pots with a hotpotch of sucky types and pricky cacti cutey stuff .

Some are growing like maniacs and need pruning to stop them taking over the neighbour hood .

I planted some bulbs from my old home that Popped Up in early Spring .

Feeling much more grounded since moving down from the Penthouse .

I like being closer to The People .

Go and help The Bunya's first perhaps .

They sound cute critters and we might need to raise awareness of their plight .

Cheers Powerful Owl .

G'day AW - yes, that's the one, a hell of a town

and yes, the old cinnamom fungus, I'd thought it was generally common in soils, just seems to emerge now and then as a problem, killing susceptible species/individual plants that are perhaps a little stressed already? I lost a heap of avacados in that last wet season, thriving right up to that point of a sudden decline. Some say it is in the soil and a big wet can mobilise it - maybe that happened here.

interestingly, the article also included a commercial finger lime grower near the Glasshouse Mts who was expressing concern over the vulnerability of her crop to the fungus. I lost some large otherwise healthy finger limes right near the avos too, hadnt thought of cinnamom fungus as the possible culprit
for them

GreenJam wrote:

G'day AW - yes, that's the one, a hell of a town

and yes, the old cinnamom fungus, I'd thought it was generally common in soils, just seems to emerge now and then as a problem, killing susceptible species/individual plants that are perhaps a little stressed already? I lost a heap of avacados in that last wet season, thriving right up to that point of a sudden decline. Some say it is in the soil and a big wet can mobilise it - maybe that happened here.

interestingly, the article also included a commercial finger lime grower near the Glasshouse Mts who was expressing concern over the vulnerability of her crop to the fungus. I lost some large otherwise healthy finger limes right near the avos too, hadnt thought of cinnamom fungus as the possible culprit
for them

Greenjam, Hi mate, As you know, it is a fungus, but, according to a biological virologist in our Field Naturalist club, it’s a type of slime mould first discovered in the tropics and sub-tropics.
I’ve read it was first discovered in Sumatra in 1922, believed to have its origins in Papua New Guinea.
As you suggested, the wetter the environment the more likely the spread.
In dry areas, spores lay dormant for long periods and manifest into the real deal after prolonged rainfall sparks them into life.

There’s no cure known and at this point in time prevention is the closest thing we have to limit spread.
The amount of Austral Grass Trees around here that die from it is very sad indeed. AW

just to get the seeds/Aw thread back up on top.. feels like there might be some seasonally related things on people minds, I came across this last night on 9gem, @AW, Wacky 1971 film, starring John Hurt, a cast of thousands of penguins, and a little bit of hayley mills.. it was originaly released as 'Mr. Forbush and the Penguins', but here is the only non-wobbly facebook version I could find, under its alternate name 'cry of the penguins':

Somehow i never knew Hayley Mills was British. Huh.

Earth

Surfies vege out on Mushies

Oh! Waves of starlight freeing trees please set us free from our toxic sea canopy

A relatively uninteresting import in our garden, except for the fact it hasn't flowered for 18 or so years. Didn't like being moved and held the grudge. Got to pay due respect. Apart from the bloom, in terms of foliage it is looking the worst it ever has in that time. Must have picked up the vibe it was going to get pulled.

blackers wrote:

A relatively uninteresting import in our garden, except for the fact it hasn't flowered for 18 or so years. Didn't like being moved and held the grudge. Got to pay due respect. Apart from the bloom, in terms of foliage it is looking the worst it ever has in that time. Must have picked up the vibe it was going to get pulled.

Blackers. Hi , hope ya well.

Ooh, you’re a harsh gardener. They are bulletproof, sounds like the soil it was growing in and maybe the pH was all over the place.
I’ve grown them ( Strelitzia reginae) from seedlings into enormous clumps 2x2m, ripped them out, divided, repotted some , never have I seen or heard of plants struggling to regrow after removal.

They are a sub tropical African plant with some quality relatives which I’ve also grown and used in gardens for clients, Strelitzia nicolai the enormously tall variety with the very large dark navy blue and white flowers and Strelitzia spathulata with long spoon like leaves.
Their flowers have evolved to attract birds to land or sit on the floral arrangement, you can often see the pollen present.
In very dry times , if you’ve seen those near translucent roots as thick as a cricket stump, you’ll see when you pull them out the ground, there’s like an internal rope in the roots core, these are contractile roots.
Being a monocotyledonous plant, as you know, growing from a basal zone of regeneration, that base must protected or death ensues.
In extremely hot or dry weather those roots pull the basal zone down into the ground further for ultimate protection.
Many other plants like Agave sp. for example have contractile roots also. AW

Hah, not harsh, more low input AW. We had to move it to put a driveway in, lots of hydrophobic grey sand in the place it was put. Clearly it didn't kill it, looked healthy enough just no blooms. The natives we planted out have thrived. Glad it has finally flushed, I can leave it for another 10 years
Did not know about the contractile roots, interesting. Have some other examples floating about, remnants of the previous owners.

blackers wrote:

Hah, not harsh, more low input AW. We had to move it to put a driveway in, lots of hydrophobic grey sand in the place it was put. Clearly it didn't kill it, looked healthy enough just no blooms. The natives we planted out have thrived. Glad it has finally flushed, I can leave it for another 10 years
Did not know about the contractile roots, interesting. Have some other examples floating about, remnants of the previous owners.

Blackers. Hi Good stuff. Just got off a Zoom meeting. Yes, hydrophobic sands would do that for sure, scant nutrient holding and scant nutrient from the sands themselves.
Proteaceous plants with Proteoid roots would love and thrive in it with the ability to breakdown invisible organic matter coating on every grain of sand.

Did you see Simon Jones had another kind of custom board thing the other day that will have ya board done by end of January 2025 ? . AW

Saw native raspberries at the gardening centre...

This is animal rather than plant, but check this out!!

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/oct/17/how-a-putrid-find-in-a-m...