Reading the experience of others growing this sp. I have thought it might be an idea to work out if we're all growing the same thing. I have two reliably identified strains with marked differences.

These seeds are the strain on which all my sucessful work has been based.

They appear to be identical to these seeds in a thread over at SAB.

These seeds were obtained from the same supplier a couple of years down the line.

Note how they are nearly twice the size of the above seeds.

They closely resemble the picture up at Entheopedia.
http://entheopedia.org/?action=Photos&id=41

Grown out, notice how they are superficially similar yet somewhat shorter and with a noticable gloss to the leaves. They also come to maturity two or three weeks earlier than the above ones and in a more staggered way. I found them to be useless for our purposes; putting out very little in the way of useable foliage and upon extraction, via my chlorophyll precipitation tek, yielding little more than smears with an indole smell.

I contacted my supplier, obviously unable to mention the assay I had made of the plants. He replied:


When growing out a small sample of the new seeds, of which I was very cautious, I was carefull to cull before flowering proper to prevent cross-pollinisation; however, a little occured anyhow. I was quite surprised to find a seed head of the top strain containing both the smaller and large seed type, kind of confirming the rather different plants to be closely linked.

The small seed variety as well as reliably producing useful quantities of alkaloids also respond very well to a culivation regime. Pots for extraction foliage and patch sown plants reliably produce useful amounts of viable seed.
I would be very interested to see what other people have got and are growing under the name Brachystasis.

I'm about to start a little batch of supposed P.B., and I say supposed because the ID is not clear. A friend with more experience than I have was unsure and suggested the seeds might actually be P. Minor, but the identification is not easy since the seeds are very ripe and the sterile florets have fallen.

I'm leaving here a picture of a sample seed, I'd like to have your input. I have Arundinacea, Aquatica, a new batch of Canariensis (the first one was discouraging when tested) and these. Intending to grow them all anyways, but any info is appreciated.

What do you do about the gramine?

Damn, I wish I could be more help. It certaily looks like my seeds- proven to be good- in the top picture. However a quick google of P. Minor and the seeds look identical. Brachystasis seeds are certainly rather attractive compared to Arundinicea which are quite 'dowdy' in comparison. I'm rambling a little... If looking at the photo without the seeds of doubt I would have said yes. Probably, under ghetto conditions, the easiest route is to run a small scale extraction or very tentative bioassay; 100g of foliage should be enough to give an idea. As far as I know only traces of active tryptamines have been found in P. Minor. If picked at the right time, quidding of P. Brachystsis can yield mild but definitive effects, but watch your teeth. Sorry I can't be more help.

Regards Gramine, I don't believe its very if at all soluble in naphtha so won't be picked up; it using another solvent for intial extraction it can be recrystalised away. Personally, I think Gramine, Hordenine etc. are red herrings; the nuisance alkaloid limiting active Phalaris' usefulness as a source is 5meo

Do you have any evidence that there even is 5meoDMT in brachystachys? Have you run TLC to verify this or anything? I am skeptical becasue I could have sworn the arudinacea extracts I was bioassaying contained 5meoDMT but when I sent it to endless there was not any 5meoDMT present..also I felt the exact same way about myu chaliponga extracts, that there must be 5meoDMT present..yet so far none of the chaliponga tested has has any 5meoDMT present..so either the TLC tests are wrong or simply bioassaying extracts and getting 5meoDMT like feelings is not necessarily an indication.

It could just be some weird beta carboline changing the effects for all we know.

Only very strong bioassay evidence. Low doses- below 10mg- are extremely potent with a sub-visual quality identical to synthetic 5meo that is absent from Hostillis extracted NN. 10mg of NN would be barely perceptible and easily dismissed for me. The one time I took a breakthrough dose there were two, very different, peaks; a classic pushed through a veil into another space with huge neon coloured machinery afraid I would meet God, then recovery for a perhaps a minute in normal space, followed by myself and everything around me violently vibrating apart, blown into nothingness. A double-dip peak.
I don't believe 5meo is at all unknown in Brachystasys; in the ER (reprinted on page 111 of the online copy of 'Ayahuasa Anologues' Trout, in response to a positive anologue report where the author asserts that DMT is the only alkaloid present in the grass replies: