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.
ECOLOGY & HABITAT
Limestone slopes of the Chihuahuan Desert; extremely slow-growing, decades-old plants may be only centimetres tall.
Distribution
Northern Mexico (San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, Coahuila)
INDIGENOUS NAMES
The names this organism has been given by the cultures that have lived alongside it. Each carries an entire relationship — what is sacred is never simply translated.
- chautleNahuatl
TRADITIONAL USE
- Variously identified by Huichol as tsuwiri (false peyote) or as a separate medicine
- Folk-medicinal poultice for wounds
REFERENCES
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- Anderson 1980
- Schultes 1992
