Ayahuasca traditions
For hundreds of indigenous Amazonian peoples — Shipibo, Asháninka, Yawanawá, Tukano, and many others — the brew known by names including ayahuasca, yagé, and caapi is the central ceremonial medicine. The vine Banisteriopsis caapi is paired with a DMT-bearing plant (typically Psychotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana). The vine is consistently spoken of as the elder spirit — the teacher — while the leaf provides vision.
The primary vine used in traditional ayahuasca brews. Contains powerful beta-carboline MAO inhibitors that allow DMT from other plants to become orally active.
Small shrub whose leaves are the most common source of N,N-DMT in traditional ayahuasca brews.
Amazonian vine whose leaves are a potent source of N,N-DMT, frequently used as an alternative or complement to Psychotria viridis in ayahuasca.
Low aromatic herb of the lower Amazon basin and Caribbean. The dried leaves are added as an admixture to several Amazonian ceremonial preparations, especially yopo and parica snuffs prepared by Waika, Yanomami and other peoples, and occasionally to ayahuasca brews. The leaves themselves smell of new-mown hay (coumarin).
Mesoamerican sacred plants
The Aztec and earlier Mesoamerican cultures held multiple sacred entheogens in active ceremonial use: teonanácatl (psilocybin mushrooms), ololiuqui (Rivea corymbosa seeds), and peyote (Lophophora williamsii). The Mazatec lineage preserved through María Sabina is one direct living thread of this older complex, including the use of Salvia divinorum in night-time divination.
Slow-growing, spineless cactus containing mescaline. One of the most ancient and culturally significant entheogens of the Americas.
Rare perennial herb in the mint family containing salvinorin A, a unique kappa-opioid agonist with extremely potent and short-acting dissociative-psychedelic effects.
Small psilocybin mushroom historically used in sacred mushroom ceremonies by the Mazatec and other indigenous groups in Mexico.
Climbing vine whose seeds contain LSA (ergine). One of the most important entheogens in ancient Mesoamerican cultures.
Climbing morning-glory vine whose dark seeds contain the ergoline alkaloid LSA (ergine). Known to the Aztecs under the Nahuatl name tlitliltzin and used in parallel to the seeds of Rivea corymbosa (ololiuqui). Modern horticultural cultivars sold as "Heavenly Blue", "Pearly Gates", and "Flying Saucers" all derive from this species.
Aromatic perennial marigold native to the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala, with a strong anise-tarragon scent. Named yauhtli in the Aztec Florentine Codex, where it appears in ritual incense formulae alongside copal. Continues in contemporary Mazatec, Huichol and other Mexican ceremonial use.
Yellow-flowered, prickly, latex-bearing annual poppy native to Mesoamerica and naturalised across much of the world's tropics. The Aztec pharmacopeia recorded multiple uses, and contemporary Mexican curanderos continue to use it. The seed oil contains the toxic alkaloid sanguinarine, the cause of epidemic dropsy when it has contaminated cooking-oil supplies.
Mexican woody climber of the nightshade family with very large pale-yellow trumpet flowers. Contains the classic tropane alkaloids scopolamine and hyoscyamine at substantial concentration. Held sacred by the Huichol people, who call it kieli or kieri and treat it as a powerful, dangerous spirit.
Showy ornamental shade plant of Southeast Asian origin, grown worldwide for its riotously coloured foliage. The Mazatec curanderos of Oaxaca include several Coleus cultivars in their botanical repertoire alongside Salvia divinorum — calling them el ahijado ("godchild") and la nene ("the child").
Andean curanderismo
San Pedro (Huachuma) and other mescaline cacti have been used for at least three thousand years in the high valleys of the Andes. Curanderos work in mesa ceremonies that synthesize pre-Columbian, Catholic, and modern healing frameworks. The cactus itself is considered a teacher and a healer; the experience is described as opening rather than fragmenting.
Fast-growing columnar cactus native to the Andes containing mescaline. Central to traditional Andean shamanism for thousands of years.
Fast-growing columnar cactus from Bolivia containing mescaline. Popular in both traditional and modern entheogenic use.
Massive columnar cactus of the northwestern Argentine Andes, reaching 10 m or more — one of the largest cacti outside Mexico. Contains mescaline at low concentrations alongside other phenethylamines. Less culturally prominent than San Pedro but used in some Andean curandero traditions.
Rare, endemic tree of southern Chile's temperate rainforest, the only member of its genus. Contains scopolamine and hyoscyamine. Used historically by Mapuche machis (shamans) in southern Chile — feared and revered as a tree of madness, vision, and witchcraft.
Bwiti — the tree of life
The Bwiti religion of the Fang, Mitsogho, and other Gabonese peoples centers on Tabernanthe iboga, called "the tree that allows men to see the dead." The root bark is taken in multi-day initiation ceremonies as a passage of rebirth. The same compound, ibogaine, has emerged in the West as one of the most promising tools for interrupting opioid addiction.
Siberian shamanism
The red-and-white fly agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, has been used in shamanic practice across Siberia, parts of Northern Europe, and the circumpolar Arctic. The pharmacology — muscimol as a GABA-A agonist — produces a profoundly different qualitative state from the tryptamine entheogens: dreamy, sedative, episodically vivid, sometimes deliriant.
Jurema ritual
In the Caatinga dry forest of northeastern Brazil, indigenous and Afro-Brazilian traditions have long used Mimosa tenuiflora (Jurema) as a visionary medicine. The root bark is the source. Contemporary Jurema practice continues actively in some communities, often blended with other ceremonial elements.
Native American Church
Peyote ceremonies — protected in U.S. law for enrolled members of the Native American Church — are one of the largest continuous indigenous psychedelic traditions in the Americas. The Half Moon and Cross Fire variants both treat peyote as a sacred medicine rather than a drug. Sustainable peyote populations are now under significant pressure.
Slow-growing, spineless cactus containing mescaline. One of the most ancient and culturally significant entheogens of the Americas.
Close relative of true peyote (L. williamsii) but with a distinct alkaloid profile dominated by pellotine rather than mescaline — and a correspondingly sedative rather than visionary action. Endemic to a small area of Querétaro, Mexico.
Small, slow-growing Mexican cactus whose tuberculate ribs resemble a woodlouse (whence "aselliformis"). Contains low concentrations of mescaline and other phenethylamines. Sometimes called peyotillo and used by some Huichol bands as an addition to or substitute for true peyote.
Squat, rock-like cactus that sits nearly flush with the desert floor — a master of camouflage in its arid habitat. Contains hordenine, N-methyltyramine, and other phenethylamines but not mescaline at meaningful concentration. Variously identified by Huichol travellers as a "false peyote" or a related teaching plant.
Modern rediscovery
Many of the species in the atlas have entered modern Western awareness only in the last century — Wasson and Sabina with the Psilocybe mushrooms, Schultes with the Amazonian botanicals, Davis with the Sonoran toad. The modern story includes legitimate clinical research, vibrant underground practice, and serious tensions around extraction, commodification, and respect.
One of the most widely cultivated and studied psilocybin-producing mushrooms. Cosmopolitan species with a distinctive golden cap and strong blue bruising reaction.
Highly potent wood-loving psilocybin mushroom famous for its wavy cap margin and intense blue bruising. One of the strongest naturally occurring species in temperate climates.
One of the most potent psilocybin-containing mushrooms in the world. Produces exceptionally high levels of psilocybin and psilocin.
Small to medium psilocybin-producing mushroom of the Pacific Northwest. Famously fond of well-watered urban lawns and wood-chip beds, which has given it the colloquial name "the lawnmower's mushroom". Caution: deadly Galerina marginata grows in the same habitat and is easily confused with it.
Small psilocybin-producing mushroom of deciduous hardwood forest east of the Mississippi. The species epithet "caerulipes" — "blue foot" — refers to the strong bluing reaction at the base of the stem when bruised.
Slender, conical-capped psilocybin mushroom of Pacific Northwest conifer forest. Lower in psilocybin than P. azurescens or P. cyanescens but far more abundant where it grows — long, narrow troops appearing on conifer debris and old logging tracks in autumn rain.
Large toad native to the Sonoran Desert whose parotoid glands contain significant amounts of 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenine.
Large arboreal tree frog of the Amazon basin. The waxy skin secretion contains a remarkable peptide pharmacopeia — dermorphin and deltorphins (highly selective μ- and δ-opioid agonists), phyllocaerulein, sauvagine, and dozens of other bioactive peptides — collectively known in the practice as kambô or sapo.
Fast-growing tree native to Southeast Asia whose root bark and phyllodes are rich in N,N-DMT and other tryptamines.
Tropical climbing vine whose seeds contain significant amounts of LSA (ergine), a naturally occurring lysergamide.