The ethnobotanical thread

hahah dont care man you can tell they are mine ...they are legit in my country HAHAHEHEHAHAHA my lil baby !! I love them so much but strating them from seed is crazy talking man ....graft them at least ! pereskiopsis is the key if you want a faster result!

Nice one C_D, i'm not suprised there your's brother, Youv'e definaetly got a bit of the Crazy( the good kind hehehe) happening,I'll google pereskiopsis & get back to you, ps i don't give a Shit about the Status of these plants, Fuckem ive got stratagies in mind. I just love these Cactii species lopho's etc, there kind of like the Coral reef specimens of the desert world, very interesting stuff too.

I so love plant's, the original inhabitants of Our Planet, They are our precursor, without them there would be no US, Worth praying to & respecting in my book

Blue Green algae the first colour Green, The first Life form, The begining of the production of Oxygen, and Weather & Climate only some 50 odd million years ago(planet earth's Age around 4.5 billion years)

another source suggest 2.8 billion years ago, but the theory is still the same, oxygen=life

aka Cyanobacteria, is also responsible for the Successfull production of 75% of the worlds rice in Asia, The most Complex life form's are still relient on the simplist.

C_D can you specify which of the eight species is worth going for within this Genus, or are they all ok, So does faster Growth really mean only weak, trace amounts of mescaline, or is that Bullshit too , Im assuming youve eaten some of your's or maybe somebody elses grafted specimen.

i'm guessing there is something to do with his 25 cm vunerable Rootstock(Root Rot), Looking @ the Pics Vtac put up those pot's don't seem that deep ,hence the Graft ?

Cannabudz said:

C_D can you specify which of the eight species is worth going for within this Genus, or are they all ok, So does faster Growth really mean only weak, trace amounts of mescaline, or is that Bullshit too , Im assuming youve eaten some of your's or maybe somebody elses grafted specimen.

i'm guessing there is something to do with his 25 cm vunerable Rootstock(Root Rot), Looking @ the Pics Vtac put up those pot's don't seem that deep ,hence the Graft ?

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the pix that vtact post are realy mine and ...to pot are maby 4-5 inches depth and are ok ...roots will take the space you give them .... I'll read the rest of your post to night I dont have the time now !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinopsis_macrogona

Have a read of this two things I love, the name "big Mac" the only big mac i wanna be eating in future ( got a live plant coming in the mail too) and i also get a kick out of the "the Sometimes spliting out of their Skin" line, regarding growth rate.

added

Hey C_D ive been googling pereskiopsis, sound's/looks like a great idea, but i "Cannot" find a source for it, any tip's or hint's from you or anybody else, Cutting's,Seed's, Where i can get some!!! if it's mail into the country it has to be seed. I love the idea of a peyote "Tree" i saw some pics of peres graft

anybody got an Idea of some great Must have Text's / Encyclopedias of Entheobotanical plants detailing their descriptions(ID), Growing/harvesting information, recipes and Proper warnings and advice

im afraid there are no magic bullets in this area, learn what you can by trolling around here on the net, a very good site to start on is http://www.erowid.org/ it has collected information, experience reports, and sometimes cultivation advise about many commonly used psychoactive plants

Cannabudz said:

anybody got an Idea of some great Must have Text's / Encyclopedias of Entheobotanical plants detailing their descriptions(ID), Growing/harvesting information, recipes and Proper warnings and advice

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Actually, there are many such books. The problem is that a book is obviously a physical artifact, the content of which is printed and distributed and therefore relatively tough to change...since this is an area that has not received nearly enough attention (due mostly to our historical perspective), there is often much need for revision and change as more research is complied. Therefore, these editions can often be far from "complete" and our understanding of what they discuss changes too quickly to keep up with printed editions. However, with all of that said...there is one recent book that I would recommend over all the rest: Christian Ratsch's "Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications". It is an absolute treasure trove of good, well buttressed information, and it is the most complete edition I have had the pleasure of reading. I'm sure it's not "complete"...but it is a SERIOUSLY well thought out, well executed, immensely detailed compendium of ethnobotanical plants both major and minor, and all aspects of their history, application, mechanisms of effect, etc. etc. It is one of the best books I have invested in since getting turned on to shamanism...curanderismo...whatever the hell you wanna call it. Healing is what I prefer.

Anyway...with all that nonsense said, let me just finish by pointing out that this is certainly just what I've already named it: and investment. It's got enough information to keep you going for years, but I got my copy brand new a few years ago and it was just over $130 CAD at that point.... That's a hefty price tag, no doubt. To my mind it's an incredible resource that's well worth the price tag (~900 pages of disparate imformation that Ratsch somehow turns into a medical compendium which makes intuitive sense...this book was probably near impossible to put together...it's an amazing artifact, even if artifacts are flawed and unmoving). So yeah, I've seen/read a lot of different source books on the biology, chemistry and ethnopolitics of psychoactive plants, but Ratsch's is hands down the most comprehensive, detailed and exciting book I've come across (in this respect) to date.

Acolyte of Zinglon said:

im afraid there are no magic bullets in this area, learn what you can by trolling around here on the net, a very good site to start on is http://www.erowid.org/ it has collected information, experience reports, and sometimes cultivation advise about many commonly used psychoactive plants

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No, there is no "magic bullet" here...but when is there such a thing? That's one of the main problems with our culture...everyone wants a pill that they can swallow which will fix their problems...no one wants to take the responsibility of getting up and healing themselves -> the world around them. Well, not no one. It is however still a somewhat uncommon mentality in our modern "developed" societies, I think. So yeah, you're basically right: all of this information is out there, on the net...and you just have to look hard for it and sift through a lot of bullshit to pull out what you need.

One thing I will say is that Erowid is a GREAT place to start, and big props to them for doing what they do for so many years, and raising the public awareness...but the net is a HUGE place, bigger than any of us really imagines...so search around as much as you can and never just take what one source tells you as the bible truth. In fact, I think there is more good "underground" information to be found on forums and such then there is at Erowid...you just have to wade through MUCH more bullshit to find it. Anyway, Erowid is awesome and I'm not knocking it, every trip should start there...but it simply doesn't end there (not implying that's what you meant AoZ, because that's certainly not what you wrote).

My tip to anyone who wants to search the darker corners of the net is simply this: ditch Google. Try different search engines (if you don't already: this should be part any informed net trekkers procedure)...you'd be AMAZED at what Google (the world's best search engine...my ass it is ) WON'T show you...

My tip to anyone who wants to search the darker corners of the net is simply this: ditch Google. Try different search engines (if you don't already: this should be part any informed net trekkers procedure)...you'd be AMAZED at what Google (the world's best search engine...my ass it is roll) WON'T show you...

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???

Google is the worlds best search engine. Hands down.

Don't both with anything else. A waste of time IMO...

I really like
www.bluelight.ru
www.psychonaut.com

Everything, and anything, you want to know....

SpiralArchitect said:

Google is the worlds best search engine. Hands down.

Don't both with anything else. A waste of time IMO...

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That's fine man: that's your opinion and you're totally entiteld to it, and I'm sure you have as much reason to back up your claims as I do mine. I do stand behind what I said, however. I've tried many many different ways and I've simply satisfied myself that some areas of the internet are buried, hidden if you will, deeper than any cursory search will bring you. It has been my experience that using Google simply does not unearth the smaller, more esoteric corners of the net. That's just my experience though, maybe you genuinely have better results...I'm personally leery to trust anyone who weilds as much power as Google does. Even if their intentions were pure in the beginning... What is it they say? Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Anyways, I'm not trying to knock Google because I do still use it and for the day to day you're right, it's very hard to top...I just find with these particular subjects I don't get nearly as many hits from Google, and the ones I do are all the more common, mainstream web pages that keep popping up over and over again. Simply my , and the point is not to "abandon" Google entirely, but rather to "seek multiple sources"...that's all.

Totally forgot about this thread....

Out of bud, so I'm vaping some Blue Lotus and Hops right now. I'll have a running report here.... All I've had today as far as MJ was a few tokes of AVB at like 3o'clock on my Vapor Cannon.


8:14
I'm hitting the Blue lotus right now (I'm going to consume them separately) and the dial is at about 12 o' clock. Blue Lotus is a 'lower temp' herb [100C to 125C (212F to 257F)], so I know this is getting 'the stuff', that is, if there truly is any. Thing is, I'm not exhaling anything.

However, I can totally taste it. The taste is very sweet. It's almost like blue berries. I can already feel it affecting me. I'm listening to some Infected Mushroom (BP Empire) and the music sounds so amazing. Other than that, my head just feels wobbly and like it's bigger than it actually is (there is more space inside than possible).

8:16
Been taking hits off it non stop for the past few minutes. I can still taste the blue oily smoothness, it's very strange on the tongue. My chest feels weird from it, almost like a cold sensation (as in ice, not sickness). Just to make sure I'm getting something out of these hits, (still not seeing anything) I'm reloading the wand. The spent leaves are noticeably darker and very brittle, turning to a dust when ran through my fingers.

I'm turning down the temp to 10 o'clock too and slowly increase it, just to make sure it's not too hot [again temp for Blue Lotus; 100C to 125C (212F to 257F)].

8:24
Been slowly puffin on this. It seemed when it was >12 the taste was more profound, but I think that was just because it was 'fresh'. I'm now at 12 on the vape, and I'm slowly go 2 (unless I give up) to try and get as much out of it as possible.

It's hard to pin down the exact high in words, I'm not having an easy time writing this. I feel very dumb and numb. I have a positive glow.

8:28
Gave up at 1 on the vape with the Blue Lotus.

Going for the hops now. Grounded up a bunch of it and poured it onto the book. I've turned down the vape to 12.

This stuff stinks, kind of smells like warm beer and pee. It's very powdery. Just took my first hit and exhaled. I'm not sure how to describe it but it taste fucking weird. Not a bad weird, like I've never tasted this taste before weird. It's almost like a waxy minty taste.

8:31
Hm, well, Been hitting this for a few minutes. I know I've been getting some good hits because the vapor is EXTREMELY fine but I can tell it's there. I can tell it's affected my vision because everything has an odd glow to it, almost like the 'swirly-like vision' impairment you sometimes get when your really stoned. Vape is at like 2 now. I'm feeling pretty good.

This bowl of hops is just about done.... I think. It's really hard to tell with this stuff.

I feel pretty out of it, I know that. This is a nice high. Very relaxing, the blue lotus made me feel almost jittery and the hops seemed to have a sedative effect. I'm relaxed, but not tired. This stuff def. works. I'm actually pretty hot right now so I think I'm gonna lay down and just listen to music for a bit. I'm done with this stuff for tonight.

Anyways, yeah....

I'm thinking the next time I try this stuff I should make some sort of tea. I'd like to reach the full effects of the blue lotus and I think that might require brewing something up.

//edit, well. The high has mostly worn off. I feel a real nice after warm glow effect but it has mostly dissipated. I feel kinda dreamy and buzzed like I had a beer or two.

neat, I never tried anything like that.

As far as search engines go I use google and good search. Check out goodsearch if you dont know what it is, I use it to help out NORML

Nice williamsii Clear Dome. Beautiful.

Someone mentioned vaping mesc, but the boiling point is well above 300C. :/

Grafting hops was mentioned. Don't know about grafting, but the same techs used for MJ are now being used to produce commercial hops for the microbrew industry. Hops requires 2 years to mature, but a cutting from a mature plant is 'mature' when rooted. These guys (PA I think) are growing hydro hops in poly houses in far less time. Pretty interesting.

Thumbs up to Erowid. Many years of going there first and branching from there.

But there was a time when we only had printed material to go by. And unless you had access to a major library or big university library or a few underground bookshops you were SOL.







all a bit dog-eared

That last one was obtained as a curiosity. It is way , way, way beyond my feeble ability.

ps growing shrooms in a land where they grow wild would be silly, and they grow about everywhere, cubensis isn't the only psylocibin species to look for.

Purple-Days said:

ps growing shrooms in a land where they grow wild would be silly, and they grow about everywhere, cubensis isn't the only psylocibin species to look for.

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I totally hear what you're saying Tom, and personally I loooove wild mushroom hunting and would recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in foraging...but remember that to the complete amateur, collecting wild mushrooms may as well be a death sport. Lots of things can go wrong very easily...especially when you're talking Psilocybe: most common Psilocybes have look-alikes...many of which are fatal, or at least seriously debilitating. I'm not saying it's impossible...but identification can be really, really difficult and making a mistake can be fatal.

Growing is way easier than you might imagine, and it is soooo much fun. It's totally addictive, as well. It's very easy to end up growing much, much more then you'd ever be able to use. It's also easy to do very small runs and keep things efficient. It's both a hobby and a science, it just depends how deep you'd like to delve. But yeah, all you really need to do is make a few investments in certain tools/supplies, and from there on out growing is dirt cheap...there's definitely a learning curve, but thats true of anything really worth doing (well...most things really worth doing). It's also very rewarding to walk with an organism through their entire life cycle, and learn from that...especially an organism whose ingestion will eventually produce such amazing outcomes in you.

Anyways...I don't want to discourage anyone from mushroom hunting, just make sure you REALLY do your homework before you begin (chances are you won't find anything unless you do some research beforehand, anyway...mushrooms don't always just present themselves to you...) and never eat anything unless you're as sure as you possibly can be that you've IDed it correctly. Sorry if I sound like your mother...but whatever. It does remind me though...it's Liberty Cap season here, just got to wait for some rains to come out way...hoo hoo this is where we could use a :licks lips: smiley

ok, im bumping this thread because i finally got off my lazy ass and finished up the descriptions of the ethnobotanicals and i also cleaned up a few descriptions

vtac or a mod, could you change the title of the thread to "the ethnobotanical thread"? it would be much more suitible and would sound less egocentric on my part
im just zis guy you see?

Hey guys, I work at a health food store and there is a lot of alternative hippy medicine and stuff. We have almost all of the herbs listed (minus a few) but, I thought I'd share my personal experience with a few of them and maybe add some more.

Chamomile - Pretty good flower flavor, mild head high.

Spearmint/Peppermint - I generally use this to remove the horrible taste of cheap dirty weed or sometimes people who are not used to vaporizers, I put a pinch in the whip and some people like it more. It does not give off a strong mint flavor, but more of an aftertaste and coolness in your mouth. No noticeable effects.

Lavender - Tried this one once, gives a flowery taste to bud or other herbs. No noticeable effects.

Damiana - Produces a mild head high for me. Best when vaped with bud, it seems to make really good vapor. Sometimes when I'm sick I'll vape an entire bowl of this and it seems to help reduce coughing.

Catnip - Mild head high, I mixed with Damiana and Spearmint one time during a dry spell and it worked okay, not great, but similar effect to smoking some trimmings or bad dirt weed.

I'll work on more if people are interested, otherwise here is a great resource for all kinds of plants.
http://www.erowid.org/

So I got some stuff from Iamshaman , mostly a pound of hops lol. Didn't want a big order since I wasn't sure how well it would go over the border. No problem so far . So anyways , couldn't fall asleep last night so I'd figure I'd give them a go in the ol' SSV.

My first thought when opening the bag was how pungent the hops were , hard to describe the smell. Anyways my sense of smell is kind of fucked up at the moment so I'm not sure I got the brunt of the taste while vaporising. It tasted kind of meh to me but what you gonna do, everything can't taste good i guess. I think it did help go to sleep more easily but it effect seemed very subtle. Anyways trying it in a tea form tonight and that seems to be hitting me much harder. Damn it's bitter though.

A method:




After taking the large cuts to propogate and give to others so they might share the beauty of a night bloomer...

A diagonal downward cut, with a serated knife, will leave one point high on the remaining stalk. Auxins take over and with luck and care there will be more bloomers to share with your friends.

BTW they really do have pretty blooms and are legal as garden specimens in the USA.

Tom,
Does that cactus have any psychoactive benefits?

Trichocerus panchoi and bridgesii.

They make beautiful garden specimens but federal law restricts the use of them for ingestion/psycho-active use.

Growing garden specimens and propogation for use as garden specimens are legit (for now). Cut it up to process for use in any drug related way and you are violating the law. Don't do it !

WOW TOM you own cactus ! man I have a whole family of Lophophora williamsii (As they are totaly legal in living form in canada ) some are now 8-13-20 years old + I also have some san pedro and one Stenocereus Ritterocereus hystrix I'll pix it for you

I look forward to seeing that last tongue twister. I have droooled over your williamsii pictures a few times. Very nice.

The Trichos seem to grow like weeds and get nice platter size night blooms in a pale yellow with a redish fringe. Very enjoyable.

at this time of the year my cacti look sad :/ I didnt water them a lot during the winter (2-3 time) but the sun come back now so I have to start back to water them ! they are all shrink and pretty dry :/ I hate seing them like this , but you know Canada is not the best place to grow cactus LOL