Happy Wattle Day!
Acacia longifolia in bloom. Photo by Liam Engel.
In Australia, on the first of September each year, we celebrate National Wattle Day. Wattle Day draws our attention to Acacia trees. There are over 1000 different Acacia species in Australia, more than any other country in the world.
The world has become increasingly interested in these special trees as a source of the psychedelic tryptamine, DMT. Entheogenic Acacia are a fascinating and little understood topic, but this is only one of the many important ecological and cultural facets of wattle.
To help us all of us walking along the plant path, and to celebrate National Wattle Day 2023, EGA have released three special publications. If you care deeply about the Australian entheogenic landscape, we recommend you read them all!
Reference Guide to Common Wattles
Friend of EGA, ethnobotanist, and founder of The Mescaline Garden, Dr Liam Engel has helped us develop this unique resource by reviewing the current literature and community knowledge around Acacia acuminata, A. floribunda and A. longifolia. The reference guide includes species and habitat descriptions, history, pharmacology, and other safety and legal issues. This beautiful, highly visual guide includes images and collaborative input from the EGA community and also contains photos from JJ, Communacacian and Jonathan Carmichael..
How to Grow Acacia Seeds
Outside of their habitat, growing Acacia might seem a bit tricky, so we’ve put together a new resource to teach you how to grow Acacia trees, step by step. Some handy tricks include shocking the seeds with heat prior to planting, to replicate a bushfire, and the use if rhizobia inoculant soil.
Acacia: Growing Towards Mutual Symbiosis
At an EGA Garden States conference in 2019, Communacacian recounted the origin of his namesake; amidst an Acacia experience, following the questioning of the purpose of entheogenic Acacia, the answer “communacacian” appeared, spelled out in giant, golden letters across the landscape.
In this important, historical article, originally published in Journal 4 alongside EGA’s 2017 symposium, we are heeded by Communacacian to step up as custodians of our medicine trees in order to establish a more harmonious and sustainable relationship.
If you’d like more detail around the Acacia conservation issue, check out Conseracacian, or watch the presentation from Dr Liam Engel below. Happy Wattling!
If you find this page helpful, please support EGA so we can make more!
