Ornamental climbing vine whose seeds contain lysergic acid amide (LSA) and related ergoline alkaloids. Used ritually by Zapotec and other Mesoamerican peoples as a divinatory complement to ololiuhqui.
ECOLOGY & HABITAT
Vigorous twining annual native to Mexico and Central America, widely cultivated worldwide.
Distribution
MexicoCentral America
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.
- TlitliltzinNahuatl"Black ololiuhqui"
- Badoh negroZapotec · Zapotec"Black ololiuhqui"
TRADITIONAL USE
- Used divinatorily by Zapotec curanderos as 'tlitliltzin' ('black ololiuhqui')
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Documented by Richard Evans Schultes in the 1940s and subsequently identified chemically by Albert Hofmann, who was astonished to find ergoline alkaloids — previously known only from ergot — in a higher plant.
GALLERY
3 images
REFERENCES
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- Schultes 1941
- Hofmann 1963
