Piper methysticum

Sterile, vegetatively propagated Pacific shrub whose roots are pounded and infused to produce a relaxing, sociable, and mildly euphoric beverage at the heart of Polynesian and Melanesian ceremonial life.

Domesticated cultigen incapable of seed reproduction; selected from the wild Piper wichmannii over millennia.

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.

• Kava
  proto-Oceanic
• ʻAwa
  Hawaiian · Native Hawaiians
• Yaqona
  Fijian · Fijian
• Sakau
  Pohnpeian · Pohnpeian

• Central ceremonial beverage across most of Oceania — used in welcomes, peace-making, and council deliberations

Unlike most entheogens here, kava is a depressant rather than a psychedelic — clear-headed, relaxant, and anxiolytic. In Fiji and Vanuatu, the kava ceremony remains a living, daily institution.