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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…
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…
Drimys andina
Drimys andina One of the last plants we were able to image, Drimys andina (with thanks to Sacred Succulents in California), enabled us to extend the geographical representation of sacred plants in our project much further south into the immense forests that are the Mapuche ancestral lands on both sides of the cordillera of the…
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…
Prosopis spp.
Prosopis spp. Using a term that is part of his Rarámuri (Tarahumara) heritage, Enrique Salmón explains the importance of iwígara in the introduction to Iwígara, the Kinship of Plants and People: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science: “In a worldview based on iwígara, humans are no more important to the natural world than any other form…
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…
