help me identify small kava plant by the root taste and effects

[August West]

Around last november, I procured a small kava plant. It was growing underneath a very mature piper plant, which was easily fifteen feet tall. The small plant I dug up, was growing off of a lateral root of the mother plant. I dug up about a three foot section of the root from which the plant sprouted off the center of the root. The root is as thick as my thumb and tapers down to fibrous roots on one end. Long story short, nobody has a clue what the variety is, only that it's several decades old. Once I figure out how to take a picture of the kava TREE, with my phone and on to here, i'll post it. My little plant went through some serious transplant shock, and seems to be acting rather dormant, due to the short hours of sunlight and cool temperature in my drafty basement.
Well my curiosity got the better of me, and I went ahead and washed off an ten inch section of the root that was damaged to begin with. It was maybe as thick as my pinky finger. I proceeded to masticate, and it tasted exactly like black licorice, pine, and pepper with minimal numbing. The effects came on about thirty minutes later, and were mild but noticeable. The first thing I felt was a warm sort of glow in my chest which slowly spread throughout my body. Kind of like the feeling I get when I pull a blanket out of the dryer and wrap myself in it. I also had an overwhelming stillness of thought and contentedness in my mind, it was short lived, but my body remained quite relaxed for maybe two hours until I fell asleep in the recliner.
Please cross your fingers for me, that my little guy makes it now that the days are getting longer. Any thoughts on the variety, or if anyone has had success with growing these little fellas, i'd appreciate it. Plus if this little guy makes it and starts kicking off some growth, i'll be more than happy to make some cuttings to share.

 

[krunkedout]

Sounds like it has some DHM in it. I believe there might be a few people on here who could perhaps tell the strain based on pics of the stem color and leaf nodes or something like that. It could be easier identified if it is a Hawaiian cultivar since there is a minimum number of those. Whereas there are just tons of Vanuatu strains; a lot of which are illegal to import to the US. (I believe). But for a plant to be ready to harvest it has to be AT LEAST 5 years old or else you will just have some very weak and unbalanced kava.

 

[August West]

Hey thanks for chiming in. I have two buddies with greenhouses, who said i could keep it there in the winter. It's more or less a conversation piece. I'm a plant nerd to begin with, and i'm running out of window space in the wintertime.

 

[kl.new2kava]

I think Adil from Paradise Kava would be a good person to run this question as he has allot of experience with the growing and harvesting of root. From what I gather the true "kava" strains are of the Piper methysticum line and many have been kept as cutting only for centuries and most feral and growing in the wild kavas would actually fall under the sub race of "piper wichmanii". Which tends not to be be drank due it's negative effects. Though it is often speculated that "tudei" strains are of the piper wichmanii genus. I am only semi-knowledgeable in this area and other members will be much better suited to answer this question. Based on the taste you described it sounds allot like N@H's chief's, which is a great strain.

 

[August West]

I've been a landscaper/mason by trade for fifteen years now, and part of my job occasionally was to deliver plants to people's homes. I ran across this kava plant in an huge old farm house with a greenhouse and beautiful old two-story tall conservatory. Built into a hillside inside was a pool surrounded by all tropical plants and trees which were labeled. The gardener said the conservatory was over 80 years old. It's beautiful, and To be honest with you, I wouldn't have recognized the piper unless it was labeled. It's kind of neat to think that plant travelled thousands of miles to get there.