Yes, I beleive that it's Phalrais arundinacea.

SMOKABLE AYAHUASCA

A methylene chloride extraction of Phalaris arundinacea (described in Winter '93 and Spring '94ER) was mixed 50:50 with Peganum harmala extract (described in Summer '93 ER) by soaking in ethanol on mint leaves. After evaporation, a one inhaltitia quantity of this was smoked. The experience was (as Gracie and Zarkov say): "qualitatively diffeener" than the Phalaris ex-
tract alone. The variety of Phalaris used in this experiment contained mostly 5-MeO-DMT, which is an extremely intense trip when smoked by itself. With the addition of the MAO-inhibiting harmala extract, the experience seems to be somewhat longer and considerably smoother, with
what can best be described as a "full body orgasm" as its predominant sensation. (It is my hypothesis that 5-MeO-DMT and DMT affect the chakras along the cerebro-spinal system.) Most people who've tried this combination prefer it to the Phalaris extract alone.

A variant of this "smokable ayahuasca," which was originally described by Gracie and Zarkov , in Notes From Underground #7, 1985, is to smoke about three inhalations of harmala extract prior to an inhalation of Phalaris. (The harmala is a surprisingly smooth and pleasant smoke. Its main effect is mildly tranquilizing, but not hallucinogenic.) In combination with Phalaris this seems to be stronger than the first method, though it still buffers the "alien" intensity of the 5-MeO- DMT alone. There's no doubt that the use of MAO inhibition with these tryptamines synergizes a "qualitatively different" experience: in my opinion, a much "friendlier" one.
— Gavilan

PHALARIS MANAGEMENT FOR
ALKALOID PRODUCTION

Although the presence of tryptamine alkaloids in the Phalaris genus has been widely reported, these reports show a wide variation in alkaloid concentration. Some of the varietal, environmental and horticultural factors contributing to these variations are discussed below.

Important variables in alkaloid production are found within the varieties of each species. In Phalaris arundinacea (Reed Canarygrass), for example, the alkaloids range between zero in some varieties, to all specimens testing positive in varieties native to Turkey and Yugoslavia. In Phalaris aquatica, the varieties Australia and Uneta have tested highest in admixture
alkaloids.

Another factor to consider is soil fertility. The more fertile the ground, especially in nitrogen content, the more alkaloids one can expect to harvest. Likewise the placing of plants in respect to shade is important. Partial shade, if available, is more conducive to alkaloid production.

Perhaps the most important management factor is the clipping schedule and time of harvest. The first growth of the year should be clipped as soon as the seed stalks appear, with clipping continuing as needed for the whole first half of the growing season. (These initial clippings may be discarded, as they will have little or no alkaloid content.) The highest alkaloid production will appear during the second half of the growing season, especially in regrowth associated with an abundance of moisture after a period of dryness. After the last clipping, sometime in early August in most temperate regions, one waters the stand and lets it regrow. The highest alkaloid production will come during a period of cool weather following fast regrowth during hot weather. One can usually obtain two good cuttings, one at the end of August, and
another sometime in September, with the latter being the most potent. Studies have shown that cutting during the early morning hours harvests more
alkaloids.

The last factor to consider is whether to dry the grass
or extract the alkaloids from the fresh material. Drying tends to reduce the alkaloid harvest, but in some cases, especially that of the Turkish variety of P. arundinacea, drying may reduce the presence of unwanted alkaloids. — Johnny Appleseed

SOME QUOTES ABOUT PHALARIS SPECIES

REED CANARYGRASS (Phalaris arundinacea L)
Phalaris: an old Greek name for a grass.

Phalaris: A genus of about twenty species, these distributed in the temperate regions of the world. Of the nine species in the United States, four have been introduced from Europe. Most of our species occur in moist situations on disturbed soils and are more or less weedy. Phalaris arundinacea, reed canary grass, is a valuable hay grass in the northern midwestern
states... (and is) found in marshes and moist places, New Brunswick to Alaska, south throughout the United States except in the southeast; Eurasia. An important lowland hay grass from Wisconsin to Montana.

Gould, F. W., Grasses of Southwestern United
States, University of Arizona Press, Pg 260

At least nine alkaloids, grouped as either phenole, indoles or B-carbolines, have been found in reed ca- narygrass ... Genotypes completely free of alkaloids are not known, but the variations in alkaloid concen- tration within groups of plants treated uniformly are shown to be very wide (Marten 1974)... It is very difficult to explain the presence of skewed distribution in this material without knowing exactly the function of alkaloids in reed canarygrass. The skewed distribu- tions exist in all populations, independent of the origin, or whether the populations have been exposed to selection or not ... Assuming normal distribution and
if natural selection has been going on by means of
grazing, a selection towards higher alkaloid levels
should be expected.

Two of the alkaloids found in reed canarygrass (DMT and 5-MeO-DMT) have been claimed to be re-
sponsible for two diseases in sheep and cattle grazing Phalaris aquatica L. (= P. tuberosa L.) in Australia. One of these diseases, "Phalaris staggers", causes chronic disorder of the central nervous system. The other disease is "sudden death," characterized by sudden collapse,ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest (Gallagher et al. 1964; Oram 1970) ... Parenteral administration of these two tryptamines has proved them
toxic to both ruminants and non-ruminants (Marten
1 974), though it has also been indicated that these disorders are very likely not caused by indole alkaloids alone.

Alkaloid concentration in reed canarygrass is e hanced by moisture stress (Marten 1973), by decreasing light intensity and by high rates of N fertilzer, especially NH4-N source (Frelich and Marten 1972). Cutting reed canarygrass every second week produced a sharp increase in indole alkaloid levels as compared with levels in free growth tissue (Woods and Clark 1971). Alkaloid concentration is greatly reduced in dried grass (Donker et al. 1976) and in silage (Hovin etal. 1980).

Alkaloids in reed canarygrass are confined largely to the leave blades (Marten 1973) ... Hagman et al. (1975 ) stated that the upper third of the total herbage had the highest and most uniform alkaloid concentration as compared with the middle and lower thirds. High correlation (r = 0.94 to 0.9 between alkaloid concentrations in the upper third and in the total herb-
age enabled them to recommend sampling only the upper third of herbage canopies for routine alkaloid screening of reed canarygrass...

Liv Ostrem (1987). "Studies on genetic variation in reed canarygrass, Phalaris arundinaceae L.," Fureneset Research Station, The Norwegian State Agrig-
cultural Research Stations, Norway, Her edit as 107

HARDINGGRASS, Phalaris tuberosa (sic) var.
stenoptera, a cool season perennial, is grown in the
Southwest and in southern California under irrigation
in forage mixtures for hay and pasture...

BULB CANARYGRASS, Phalaris tuberosa (sic),
is a perennial extensively grown in Australia... It is
necessary there to add cobalt to the soil or to the ani-
mal diet when Phalaris toxicity is encountered with
sheep or cattle grazing this species.

Hughes, H. D., et al (1961) Forages ~ The Science
of Grassland Agriculture, 2nd ed. Iowa State Univ.
Press, Ames, IA, pg. 250

Plants of Phalaris aquatica L. (syn. P. tuberosa
L.) "Stenoptera" grown from seed have widely varying
differences in their concentrations of
N,N-dimethyltryptamine and N,N- dimethyl-
5-methoxytryptamine. Although some variation was
anticipated, the magnitude of the differences was be-



P.O. Box 778, El Ri

Phalaris arundinacea is

extremely variable, according
to the study Rosetta sent me

— some strains contain DMT,
others containbeta-carbolines
and a few contain both. Unless
you're dealing with a tested
and known clone, what you're
getting is anybody's bet.

[Johnny appleseed's extraction
formula from issue #2 of The
Entheogen Review, has isolated
DMT residues of considerable
potency from Phalaris grass,
p. arundinacea varieties
"Turkey red" and "Yugoslavian
fresh-cut" seem consistently
high in alkaloidal content. ]

— Ed.

QUANTITY PHALARIS PRODUCTION

What are the best ways to get large stands of Phalaris
grass with consistent alkaloid content? Surely vegeta-
tive propagation with OTJ's plants at $25.00 each
would either be very expensive or a very long term
project. Should seed from a known-potency plant be
expected to produce offspring with a similar alkaloid
profile if self-pollinated? I have the patience for a
long-term project with delayed rewards, but prefer a
shorter path to the same end. - AH, TN

JOHNNY APPLESEED RESPONDS

Quantity alkaloid production from Phalaris grass is a
long- term project, but not an interminable one. Start-
ing with one plant, one could grow it in a pot indoors
during the winter with plenty of light and moisture. By
spring, one could take out the developed root ball and
obtain from 25 to 50 rhizome sections suitable for
planting. If we take the conservative estimate of 25
sections, we would then plant out these rhizome sec-
tions on a one-foot grid, covering a 5 X 5 ft. area.
With good watering, these plants in turn by fall should
each have a root ball that could in turn be divided into
25 sections, giving a total of 625 rhizomes. Thus, by
the fall of the first year, we should have a square 25 X
25 ft. planted. The second season, if each of the above
plants were divided, we would have a total of 15,625
plants, or an area of 125 ft. on a side, or 0.34 acres.
One more division would give an area large enough
for most purposes. All these plants would be genetically identical.

The main factor in consistent alkaloid content is the
genetic make-up of the plant. Not all plants of known
potency can be expected to produce offspring from
seed with a similar alkaloid profile. Reed Canarygrass
(Phalaris arundinacea) is self-sterile and has a two-
gene system proposed for alkaloid production. (1)
Given two genes and a forced crossing each genera-
tion, there are four possible genetic combinations pos-
sible from each parent (MT, Mt, mT, mt) and thus 16
genetic combinations possible in the offspring. Using
the alkaloid inheritance scheme proposed by Marum et
al, out of these 16 possible combinations, there would
be 12 possible combinations that could produce 5-MeO
in the progeny, and of those 12, only 4 would breed
true in subsequent generations.

Three of the possible genetic combinations would pro-
duce DMT in the original progeny, and only one of
them would breed true (mmTT). One of the possible
original 16 combinations would produce the alkaloid
gramine (mmtt). These are not the ratios one finds in
actual crosses, as the frequency of occurence of these
genes differ. Thus gramine, with only one possible ge-
netic combination, occurs less than 1% of the time.

Thus seed from any producing cultivar is not assured
to produce consistent yields in subsequent generations.
The cultivar "Turkey Red," a 5-MeO producer, has
been tested by TLC to determine the alkaloid produc-
tion pattern for a number of individual plants. Out of
the 16 plants selected at random from the original seed
source, all 16 plants exhibited a similar alkaloid pro-
duction pattern of 5-MeO. Out of over 50 seed sources
and over 800 individual plants tested, no other strain
exhibited such uniformity of alkaloid production. Thus
it may be safe to assume that the Turkey Red strain
should breed true in subsequent seed generations, if
care is taken not to plant within one quarter mile or so
of a pollen source of other Phalaris arundinacea.
— Johnny Appleseed
txt

Tests have shown that juicing fresh grass leaves 70% of the alkaloids in the solid material. Thus you might as well start off with some kind of acid soak of the crushed or shredded whole leaves.

If it's the plain, old, white-and-green variegated Phalaris ('picta', IIRC), don't bother. If it's the 'Strawberries and Cream' variety ('Feesey', then it may be more worth a look.

My Feesey specimen has reverted to non-variegated.

What specially differentiates 'Arctic Sun'?

Stunning cream and green striped leaves set this variety of grass apart. The leaves and stems display pink tints in spring as well as autumn. Feesey has narrow flowers spikes studded with tiny white, pink tinted flowers in early summer.

What does "feral specimen" exactly mean?