Tabernaemontana spp.
Tabernaemontana spp. Carmen X. Luzuriaga-Quichimbo and her team of researchers from Ecuador and Spain are at the forefront of new studies on Tabernaemontana sananho, also known by its Kichwa name Sikta. They document medicinal and ritual uses of this small tree that thrives in lowland evergreen rainforests throughout northern South America by the Aguaruna of…
Mimosa tenuiflora
Mimosa tenuiflora In an overview of the chemical composition and uses of Mimosa tenuiflora, Sara Lucía Camargo-Ricalde maintains that, despite an established contemporary tradition of this plant as a Mexican folk medicine for the efficacious treatment of skin problems, burns and wounds, the author could find no pre-Hispanic references to medicinal uses of tepescohuite in…
Heimia spp.
Heimia spp. Even though there are dozens of names for Heimia salicifolia that cut across national borders from Mexico to Brazil as well as linguistic boundaries that indicate traditional medicinal plant knowledge among a diverse array of Indigenous groups, there is no known pre-Hispanic ritual use of this plant. Heimia is widely used as a…
Desfontainia spinosa
Desfontainia spinosa Richard Evans Schultes, in his pioneering article from 1977 “Desfontainia: A New Andean Hallucinogen,” describes collecting Desfontainia spinosa twice in Colombia’s Sibundoy Valley, first in 1942 and then in 1953. The Kamsá and Ingano shamans that Schultes consulted called the plant borrachero de páramo and told him that they would drink a tea…
Calea ternifolia
Calea ternifolia (formerly Calea zacatechichi) Calea zacatechichi should now be called Calea ternifolia, an earlier name established in 1820 that taxonomically preceded that of C. zacatechichi from a publication that appeared in 1835. Even so, the Náhuatl etymology of zacatechichi is worth remembering since it describes one of the plant’s most memorable qualities as “bitter…
Illustration
Illustrations
Yagé Varieties and Their Names By Jonathon Miller
Yagé Varieties and Their Names By Jonathon Miller Weisberger In this essay, I will share some key insights into the notable varieties of Amazonia’s enigmatic visionary vine, Banisteriopsis caapi, specifically related to the Indigenous science of yagé, as known and practiced by the Western Tukanoan speaking Siekopai people of the northern Ecuadorian Amazon. The information…
The Yagé Complex by Neil Logan
The Yagé Complex By Neil Logan Dedicated to Miguel Payaguaje and his extended family (including his father Delfín and his grandfather Fernando), as well as all the vine gardeners responsible for stewarding these sacred plants through time. Introduction This essay will present the origins, evolution, and human co-history of the Malpighiaceae family of ethnomedically significant…
Polylepis spp.
Polylepis spp. Microcosms is very pleased to include a contribution in this new section Polylepis by Ben Kamm, founder of Sacred Succulents (https://sacredsucculents.com/), a business that lovingly and knowledgably purveys rare and endangered plants and seeds from the Americas, with a specialty in the Andean countries, which Ben has explored extensively and found much to…
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