Sunday Times (Perth, Australia)
Thieves high on leaves of Perth plant
ARDROSS couple John and Coralie McDavitt love their garden, but it is African raiders who get a real buzz from it.
Their once-lush "khat" tree has been stripped almost bare by thieves hunting for a high.
The exotic plant, catha edulis, is grown in Africa and the Middle East where it is prized for its amphetamine-like stimulant properties.
Some members of Perth's African community are keeping up their traditional use of the tree by harvesting leaves from suburban gardens.
Mr McDavitt noticed his tree was attracting interest about four years ago. African men would knock on his door and politely ask to pick leaves from the 5m tree. Now they appeared unannounced twice a week.
Mrs McDavitt said some of the raiders had hand-drawn maps with directions to their house. The McDavitts have pinned signs on the tree -- even smeared grease on its trunk to stop thieves.
They have pruned lower branches to make scaling the tree difficult.
Mr McDavitt is proud of the garden and wants to keep the tree, but said he would be forced to cut it down if raids continued.
"It has accelerated in the past 18 months to the point where nothing will deter them," he said. "They come in twos or threes and have become aggressive. I was in the garage and heard a clunk and a thud and went out and there were a couple of people up the tree. The noise I heard was a big chaff bag of leaves dropping to the ground.
"If they get to the top again, we will have to cut the tree down."
Khat, like the highly toxic hallucinogenic datura plant, can be legally grown in WA. In countries where it is valued for its drug properties, leaves from the plant are chewed or brewed to make a narcotic tea.
Tim Parker, of Dawson's Garden World in Forrestfield, said he got calls from people wanting to know why leaves were disappearing from their khat trees.
The plant was not sold in Australian nurseries and had not been widely planted in Perth for 50 years, he said.
The trees were usually in established suburbs.
"Where you have these trees, you often get problems," he said. "Owners often cut the trees down to stop the problem."
