Scaevola spinescens - Maroon Bush or Currant bush

[Rimbaud]

See this link:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=209347

There is a discussion thread here too:

http://cafe.noeticnetworks.org/dcf/DCForumID2/62.html

This plant seems to be undergoing a burst of popularity as a potential natural cancer treatment. Anyone got more info?

I found some seeds and am selling them on Guruna.

[darcy]

that's one of the plants we saw out west Rimbaud, but it didn't have ripe fruits i remember. I think its in the useful bush foods book.

[JumpedAngel]

Hi fellars

Just returned from the Murray/Darling basin (2 days ago).

Among the many interesting plant materials that I was able to gather this time was (I think) Scaevola spinescens. The only NSW plant reference that I had with me lists S. spinescens as a NSW outback species.

I have to admit that I am still not completely sure about the ID so I am including an image.



One point of confusion is the plant description stateing white/yellow flowers, I thought it was more mauve/violet(Maroon?), but then checking my images they look white/yellow? I dont know, maybe the colour gets washed out in the CCD? Although in looking over the images it is now beginninig to appear as though the flower is violet when new and then fades to white

Many of the specimens that I came across appeared to have been broused by the ferral goat population from memory.

Anyway I got a bit of fruit and have put it straight into the soil in the hot-house, keeping my fingers crossed.

[darcy]

Hi JA,

looks like you've got a creeper there, is that right? Scaveola spinescens is a small shrub up to about 1.5m i think, very spiky as well. There's a lot of other Scaveolas that are creepers, a lot like Goodenia to whom they are closely related. So I reckon it's another species.

What other interesting stuff did you see out there?

[JumpedAngel]

not sure my photobucket wants to upgrade the image so posting another here



hmmm... I've upgraded the pic... maybe that will help? maybe not?

What is difficult to see is what's not there, the cause for the absolute lack of foliage on the plants, and it is difficult to see without the thing in your hand but was fairly obvious on site. The goats are able to differentiate between the foliage, the flower and the stem and I just marvelled as to how cleanly they were able strip what they wanted and then leave everything else completely in tact, seriously you had to be there, curiously in some cases they took everything except the stalks thicker than say 3mm, so you come across this strange plant looking perfectly natural but made up completely of stalks, anyway, I can see the difference in what other images are avaiable to what I have put up and I am not going to labour the point, there is boubt in my mind too, I am sorry to hijack your thread and I may just put up the image on Gardenweb and see what they say, some of those guys are really good with Id's and my resourses on this genus/species are very limited.

Otherwise, all the usual suspects were there (except the ones most sort after), 2 days at that location and 23 hours of marching around in the sun with a full pack combined with extraordinary heat (at least 50 each day) and a bad case of the runs compliments of Mr McDonald's fishburgers and I was feeling like my life was being sucked out of my arse every time I climbed over one of those dark red sand dunes. Seriously, my throat was so swollen up inside for days after I got back that I could barely breath let alone drink fluids (I haven't gone that close to to wall since the time I got lost in the Simpson Desert).

Realizing that I wouldn't be physically able to sustain another day of that sort of self abuse I decided to spend my remaining time hunting down places of 'potential habitat' so I headed down south and checked out some areas around the major and minor anabranch of the Darling River where I found some interesting things (rivermints, fields of thousands of puffballs?), then I hopped across the border into SA were I found a few promising looking areas that I have noted for future exploration.

I did bring back a few samples of things of interest such as Wilga and Leapard wood and at this time of year there is just absolute shitloads of 'Poor Man's Pituri' around (N. excelsior), with this latter plant, I brought back some seed with me from my last trip (Nov-04) and have got some adaults plants already in the hothouse so I didn't bring back any foliage just seed.

[Rimbaud]

hey, you should have followed Darcy and my directions to the Known Stand JA!!!!!!!! I am beginning to think that my chance discovery of this stand was quite lucky. What to you think Darcy? am i brilliant???!?

so JA do you still want that GA-3? I'm happy to send if you'd like to try some anyway?

sounds like a HARD trip too. But there's something about those hot, hard, thirsty trips that creates an indelible experience in the brain, whether enjoyable or rotten.....

[JumpedAngel]

Directions wot? like the kind I give yeah but I must say it is so brilliant when you happen across a real find isnt it, for this last trip I had 3 priorities but all I got was the McDonalds consolation prize, how many times have I promised myself that I would never eat there again? ho-hum, thats what you get when you're in a hurry, the runs. Stupidly, I hopped in to a pub on the 4th day for a counter lunch and copped another dose, must be something in the water up there.

Some GA-3 would be nice, I still have some hard-nut natives that I am trying to crack. I happend across some of that seed starter stuff at a local nursary during the week, too early to tell if that has helped, they are also selling that recently discovered pine errr-ahhhh cant remember the name, starting at $55 and going up to about $350 depending on size, thats right, Woolami pine (i think).

This last trip was marked by the dryest heat that I have been through and it appeared that the wind was down so things just kept heating up all day, but I think the most damaging aspect was the dust, In future I will add a dust mask to my kit as well as an absorbant head band to stop the sweat running into my eyes and stinging them.

Any ways, already planning the next trip, roll on October!

[darcy]

I believe you must have been guided by the spirits of past pituri chewers rimbaud , twas a good find.

[eataust]

Wollemi pine. Pre-ordering now for delivery on April 1, I'm told ... I'll get myself one when I have a proper house and garden. It WAS found in the Blue Mountains, after all ... my home :)

[Rimbaud]

JA what's the hottest temp you've ever been in, in your travels? My hottest was in Marree in SA, the south end of the birdsville track. To be precise, we drove out to the "shore" of Lake Eyre, on a "warm, sunny" day.... Yikes. The town's temp that day (in fact for 2 days in a row) was 46 degrees, and it would have been slightly hotter, maybe a degree or so, at the Lake because of the lower elevation.

but the most consistently hot place i ever visited was the Pilbara in WA. Each day, without fail, well over 40 degrees; dawn temps rarely falling below 30 degrees either. i was stuck (in the sand) on 80 Mile Beach which is between Port Hedland and Broome; had to endure 2 nights and 1 day of this, unsheltered, and thought i could seriously have died.

[Ed Dunkel]

Sorry, couldn't help but jump in on my chance to show off

I used to live in Suadi Arabia (Riyahd) when I was a kid. Summer temperatures regularly hovered around 40-50 C (in the shade). I'm sure we would have had a day in the low to mid 50's as an extreme.
Very dry air so it was quite managable, along with everything being airconditioned. My parent also moved to the coast (Dhahran and would have experienced horrible 40-50 C with close to 100% humidity!!)

I'm sure that someone from the red centre or the Sahara will top this one.

[Rimbaud]

yep can't beat Saudi for some warm temps!! Interesting Ed, i didn't realize you had lived over there. I don't think there are many people who have experienced such hot temps as you have, then! i am in awe

i think there are a few "hot spots" around the globe, which include such places as the Gulf area (inc. Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia); certain low-elevation parts of central Africa; mid-northern Africa e.g parts of central Algeria and other Saharan countries (the town of Ain Salah in Algeria is a pretty warm place in July...); the Pilbara of WA (e.g. Marble Bar); parts of India and Pakistan; and of course, the hottest place on earth in terms of extreme maxima, Death Valley in California, which is so hot because of unique topographical conditions, including extreme low elevation, unfortunately-located mountain ranges (there is some sort of effect of wind going down slopes facing in a certain direction which creates extra heat, forget what it's called) and continental aridity.

In Death Valley, the average maximum temp in July is 47 degrees celsius in the shade. That's the AVERAGE maximum temp...

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

Death Valley "only" has the second-hottest ever recorded temp (57 degrees in the shade), but is consistently the hottest and has the most frequent extreme temps (every summer will have a few days over 50 degrees C, apparently, without fail)

[JumpedAngel]

yeah? Im not sure which was the hottest.

I remember sailing up the Suez canal as a boy but dont remember it being that hot, then again I was between homes in Argentina and Italy and I can remember some heat in each of those places, same with many of the smaller countries around the top end of South America although PNG was cool and wet all the while I was there.

Being lost in the Simpson was exsaberbated by the shock factor which goes along with such an experience and the urgency that accompanies every moment of life after that realization, then I can remember one particular stinker off Gizo Island (Solomon Islands) but it might have been the boredom which came with that particular day.

Overall, I would have to say this last trip was the worst heat so far, I had to laugh, I would tune into the ABC news every night and on one particular night there the newsman noted that so far this year the Alice had not had a single day below 40.

I have to admit that of the 10 hours on the 1st day and of the 13 hours on the second day (marching around with full pack) I made a very conscious effort to find a shady spot on the highest points of the dunes and sat out the extreme part of the day say between about 12:30 and 2:30, you cant really call it rest as the ants where everywhere so you couldn't sit still for more than 2 min, unfortunately the winds though most often hot were not present on this trip and the occasional breeze which moved through the dunes on did little more than distribute the heat and beat up the choking dust, I was actually kicking myself for leaving the portable weather station at home but really, its made of plastic and I suspect that it would have melted.

Last trip there was much cooler and I think I have a photo of the weather station then saying it was about 42 or 46 at the time, maybe it was the dehydration due to the runs but this time felt much hotter as it should after all it was the middle of summer and every other time up there it was always mid to late Spring.

[Bungarra]

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Thought I'd reserect this thread as it seems to me that Scavola spinescens is being used more often here (West Australia) as a cure all.

Estelle Leyands book "Wajarri Wisdom" has the recipie for Gubaru tea in it. Estelle is sure it cured her of cancer

I have just been diagnosed with heart, liver, and kidney probs and am about to embark on this treatment myself

I'll keep you posted.

Here is an informative site on Scavola spinescens

www.bushmedicine.ws/page1.html

[saluni]

Has anyone here had much success with germinating scaevola spinescens?
Or indeed any recent pictures of your plants or seedlings? I'd love to know what my seeds will hopefully grow up to look like. Thx.