Plants from Indonesia
Posted by Growing Entheogens | Filed under travel
Last september I went to Indonesia for about a month to travel from Java to Bali together with my girlfriend. It was an eye-openening experience in the way Indonesian people live their lives. There isn’t much (near to nothing), and most of the people seem to be so much more happier and friendlier than here in the ‘civilised’ West. The people in the farming areas live a symbiotic life with the land they live on. Everything they need comes from the land, from food to medicine and housing. It was really inspiring to see all this, and ofcourse it raised questions about the way we live here.
I won’t go much deeper into this matter, since we’re here for the plants. Indonesia’s drug policy is very strict, and getting the dealth penalty for posession isn’t an exception. I knew there was a kratom plantation on Bali, but after looking into various sources to attempt locating it,my search for it seemed fruitless. I had to stick with everything I encountered, which aren’t that many plants with entheogenic or hallucinogenic properties, but everyone of them has some mind altering properties in some way. Before Indonesia became Indonesia, it was a bunch of islands which were eventually colonized by the Dutch, who stayed there until the late 1940′s. The Dutch introduced the plantations, which are still being used today except this time by the Indonesian people themselves. These plantations mostly grow coffee, clove, tea, rubber and cacao.
Tea
Above is a tea plantation and a close-up of fresh tea leaves. The leaves and buds from the tea plant, also known as Camellia Sinensis, have to be dried before one can make tea out of it. In Indonesia most tea that is being produced is black tea. Black tea lacks antoxidants because of it’s production techniques, and the only substance which might be seen as a psychological stimulant is the caffeine.
Coffee
Then there’s coffee, with the same main stimulant as tea; caffeine. Where for tea the leaf itself is used, for coffee is it the seed from the fruit. The fruit is like a small red berry which taste is quite bitter. There are two types of coffee plants, the Coffea Arabica and Coffea Canephora (also known as Coffea Robusta). The Canephora species is widely spread across the Indonesian islands. Every year there are two periods in which the harvesting is being done. While harvesting the fruits, one should always leave a few berries on a branch, otherwise that branch won’t develop anymore new berries in the future.
Cacao
Theobroma Cacao, a plant everyone knows. Theobroma actually means ‘Food of the Gods’. It’s praised by many for its fruit and the chocolate that is being made out of the dried and cleaned seeds. Indonesia is currently the third country from the top which has the largest cacao cultivation. The unprocessed cacao beans that I tasted while I was on the plantation tasted horribly. No doubt about that. The taste is so bitter that the taste won’t go away for at least an hour. The fruit itself , the seed pod, on the other hand tastes really nice. It has a somewhat sweet-sour taste like that of the kiwifruit. The structure inside the fruit is a bit slimey, but now that I’m thinking of it, I’d love to have one again. The color of the fruit varies from red to yellow, and they all start out as green pods. The red ones are supposed to be the better quality cacao beans.
Clove
The clove-tree, also know as Syzygium aromaticum, is a very popular tree in Indonesia. In Indonesia many people smoke kretek-cigarettes instead of the plain tabacco sigarettes we know. The addition of dried clove to the tabacco gives the smoke a somewhat sweeter taste, and a more pleasant smell. In my personal experience, smoking it gives a light buzzed feeling, but nothing more than that :)
Clove grows on trees as a flower which is dried later and then sorted. There are two types of quality, the red ones, which are B-quality, and the green ones, which are (surprisingly) A-quality. The flower buds have to be dried before they can be used in cigarettes or for other uses, such as spicing up food or tea. Originally clove was only found on the Malukas. When colonization started out in Indonesia and the Dutch acknowledged the worth of clove the tree was spread throughout the other islands and the world.
Pineapple
Ok, there’s nothing much to tell about this fruit that everybody knows, but I thought it was just fun to post a picture of one growing and tell something about it, since I was kind of surprised to see the way it grows. The top crown of the pineapple can be planted into the ground, and when the crown roots a full plant (1.0 – 1.5 metres in length) will develop. One plant will grow only one pineapple in it’s life, but when flowering is induced artificially, the main fruit can encourage the development of a second crop of smaller fruits.
Datura (Brugmansia)
I was thrilled to see this variation of Datura grow in it’s natural environment. Actually, this no longer is a real Datura, but it is still called the Datura Tree. Around 1970 the Datura species got split up in Datura and Brigmansia because of the large number of species sharing the same name. The Solanaceae family holds a number of different plants, varying from potatoes,and peppers to Datura Inoxia and Datura Stramonium, the more common known Datura strains. The two latter types are plants that grow near the ground and are herbaceous, while Solanaceae Brugmansia is a woody perennial with characteristic trumpet-shaped flowers hanging downwards. This (in)famous tree is known because of the stories of terror told by some people who used this plant in a very irresponsible way and turned delerious or even were deadly poisoned. The history of use for this plant goes back centuries or maybe even millennia. The main active alkaloids are atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine. All parts of the plant can be used for psychonatic uses, including the flowers, stem, leaves and roots. The levels of the alkaloids may vary per plant or even per plant-part.
Every time I went to a volcano (two really; Bromo and Kendang) or waterfall I encountered these trees. The seem to love the height and colder climate in the mountainous areas. Because Indonesia has a high humidity these trees seem to thrive; wherever one tree grows there are more, it’s near impossible to spot a lone tree.
I was a bit scared when I saw this, but I’d figured the monkey would’ve known what it was doing. Maybe that’s why they keep running around and screaming ? :)
Expand your mind, be self-sufficient, grow your own. Share your seeds
and cuttings, the more knowledge the faster the growth.
November 9, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Hi, Neat post. There’s an issue with your site in web explorer, may check this? IE nonetheless is the market leader and a huge portion of folks will pass over your wonderful writing due to this problem.