Multivitamin Tree
Yerba tea is also often called a “miracle tea,” as the plant’s leaves contain twenty-four vitamins and minerals, lots of antioxidants, and fifteen amino acids. According to the results of a study conducted by the Pasteur Institute, “It is difficult to find a plant in any area in the world equal to mate in nutritional value.” Yerba has “practically all of the vitamins necessary to sustain life.” In addition, the plant is very versatile, and people can prepare the tea in many different ways, using tea infusions, French presses, coffee machines, and even espresso makers. Yerba drinks can be consumed cold or hot, served with honey and milk, or with mint and lemon.
Some of the most common health benefits include an enhancement in the ability to focus, strengthened physical endurance, aid to the digestion process, weight control, and significant support of the cardiovascular system. A yerba a day (instead of the traditional apple) might truly keep the doctor away.
YEW
Taxus baccata
A Secret Poison
Yew is a plant rich in myths, legends, folklore—and toxins, which are disguised by its intensely beautiful greenery. A conifer, yew is found in Europe, North America, northwestern Africa, northern Iran, and Southwest Asia. Its other common names are European yew and English yew. Yews usually live for four hundred to six hundred years, though several specimens in Britain are thought to be from the tenth century B.C. and are more than nine thousand years old. It is the longest-living species in Europe, thanks to its slow growth, ability to resist pests and disease, and the process by which its drooping branches take hold in the soil and form new trunks.
Belonging to the family Taxaceae, yews are evergreen trees, 33 to 66 feet high (in rare, extreme cases up to 92 feet!), with trunks 6 feet in diameter. Leaves are lanceolate, dark green and flat, 1½ inches long, and are spirally arranged on the stem—not to mention very poisonous. Each cone produced contains a single seed, surrounded by a modified scale that later develops into a red, berry-shaped structure called an aril. Arils mature about seven to nine months after pollination and are the only part of the tree that is not toxic, and as such are a food for different birds.
The oldest yew tree is in Bermiego, Asturia, Spain, and is 45 feet tall at the crown. In 1995, the Spanish government declared it a national monument, and it is now protected by law. The oldest wooden artifact made of yew is a Clactonian spear, found in 1911 in Essex, England, and estimated to be 450,000 years old. Celts believed the tree magical. Its wood was used for divining rods to find water and was considered the best wood to make bows. William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple on his son’s head, had a yew bow. People took to planting the tree near graveyards to ward off evil spirits or as a border around towns to bring good luck.
Ancient peoples considered the yew a symbol of transcendence of death and reincarnation. The Canon of Medicine, written in 1021, describes the plant as a cardiac remedy. In some regions of the central Himalayas, people use yew to treat breast and ovarian cancer.
Toxicity and Incidents
All parts of the yew (except the berries) contain taxin, which is a complex alkaloid, as well as ephedrine, cyanogenic glycoside, and a volatile oil. When poisoned, animals and humans may not display symptoms of illness but will die nonetheless in as little as a few hours. Although the berry’s flesh isn’t poisonous, the seed inside is toxic. Only three seeds are enough to kill a person.
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The yew’s toxic qualities have also been well-known through history. When the Cantabrians were under siege by the Roman Gaius Furnius, many in the walled compound committed suicide by yew poisoning, rather than face humiliating defeat.
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YOPO
Anadenanthera peregrina
Spiritual Snuff
Anadenanthera peregrina and Piptadenia peregrina are two names for the same plant, which has many other common names, such as yopo, nopo, mopo, jopo, cohoba, jungle juice, calcium tree, or parica. Whatever you call it, if you use its beans or seeds (or sometimes its dried leaves) as a snuff, you may forget not only its name, but also your own. Yopo is a hallucinogenic plant with psychoactive properties.
A perennial tree, yopo is native to South America and the Caribbean, growing up to 60 feet high. Its flowers come in colors ranging from white to pale yellow and have a spherical shape. Although people have smoked and sought after its leaves since ancient times, yopo isn’t a threatened species. Many consider the plant an entheogon, meaning “generating the divine within,” and it has found its way into many different rituals and ceremonies. Beyond the realm of spirituality, many know the plant as a good source of dietary calcium.
The plant has a rich ethnobotanical history and was once a valuable religious component of at least fifty-five indigenous tribes from its native regions. The snuff made from its bean was called cohoba, used in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico. Archeologists have discovered many artifacts, including long tubes, usually made of bamboo or bird bones, used for blowing cohoba into the nostril of another person. Not many people from modern cultures know about yopo snuffing, but it was (and still is) very popular among indigenous South Americans and Mexicans. Records indicate that as much as 20 percent of the ancient Mayan population used yopo snuff regularly.
Psychedelic yopo snuff is prepared by roasting the black beans until they break out of their husks, similar to popcorn popping. The husks are then removed, and the beans are ground into a powder, after which calcium hydroxide or limestone, or calcium oxide from ashes or crushed seashells, is added. The mix becomes similar to bread dough by adding just a bit of water, and after moistening, it gets shaped as a ball. After a few days, it’s ready to use. Some indigenous tribes from the Orinoco basin in Venezuela and Colombia, as well as some across the Amazon River in Brazil, still use the snuff for spiritual healing. The beans and falling leaves of yopo trees are hallucinogenic to cattle, too, as well as toxic.
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The Effects
Yopo contains the hallucinogen DMT; while sniffing, the user may feel a significant pain in the nostrils, although it is quickly replaced by the psychedelic effects. Physical effects include numbness and tingling throughout the whole body, as well as an increased heart rate. The hallucinatory effects start with colors becoming more vivid, while shapes take on altered dimensions. Effects usually intensify quickly, but last only briefly, quickly giving way to nausea and general unease.
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ZUBROWKA
Hierochloe odorata
Vodka, and Much More . . .
Widely known as the plant that makes the best Polish vodka, zubrowka has many traditional uses in other regions. Its names include sweetgrass, holly grass, Mary’s grass, Seneca grass, or even vanilla grass, probably because it is an aromatic plant growing natively across northern Eurasia and also in North America. Its sweet scent comes from coumarin, a chemical compound found in the plant that is used in herbal medicine.
Zubrowka is a perennial, hairless, slender plant with tufted underground stems or rhizomes. It belongs to the family Poaceae. Its leaf blades are aromatic, and grow 7 to 11 inches long, with slightly rough edges. Flowering parts come in open panicles—a branched flowering structure of about the same length as the leaves. The fertile spikelets, or the structures on which the flowers are held, arise from two sterile florets and one fertile floret. The zubrowka’s fruits are small, dry, thin walled, with only one seed inside that is fused to an ovary wall. This seed combination is called caryopsis. The herb grows with full or partial sun exposure. The seeds aren’t very viable since it takes a young plant two to three years to develop a strong root system. The easiest way to propagate is by cutting plugs from well-established herbs.
Uses for zubrowka include traditional basketry, in which the dry and brittle stems are soaked in warm water to make them pliable. Other European uses include its treatment as holy grass to be posted on church doors on specific saints’ days, but also in honor of
the Virgin Mary. The French use zubrowka to flavor tobacco, candy, soft drinks, and some perfumes. Russians use it to make vodka and as an additive to flavor certain teas. Zubrowka has a mellow, calming effect and is used by some people for entering a meditative state, although it is not known to have any psychotropic effects.
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American Traditions
Native Americans used zubrowka, or sweetgrass, primarily for basketry. Some tribes, including the Dakota, Cheyenne, Lakota, Kiowa, and others, used it as a protection from evil spirits and to honor ancestors in numerous ritual practices. Native Americans also used it in cosmetics and as an aromatic hair shampoo. Teas made from the plant proved useful in fighting coughs and sore throats in the Blackfoot and Flathead tribes. The Kiowas used its fragrant leaves for mattresses and pillows. The Cheyenne tribe smoked it in pipes during their Sacred Arrow and Sun Dance ceremonies.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Once again, foremost thanks to Peter Hubbard, now Senior Executive Editor at William Morrow. His steadfast encouragement harks back to the days when editors nurtured writers, not only doing the job of redlining, but taking time to listen to a writer’s particular tales of woe. Peter retains that special love of books and writing—no small feat in our current world of bottom lines and corporate power. Big thanks to editorial assistant Cole Hager for his insightful comments, and to all those at HarperCollins and William Morrow for their much-appreciated efforts.
Also, another tip of the hat to my agent, Frank Weimann of Folio Management, who remains a longtime and loyal supporter of yours truly. Much thanks to botanists and researchers Dr. Jagdev Singh, Dr. Manish Goyal, and Krum Velkov, who helped me navigate through this complex science. And last but not least, sincere gratitude to the talented artists of the Tropical Botanic Artists Collective. I thank them for their enthusiasm and diligence in providing original art to accompany my passages.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © by Lisa Lee
MICHAEL LARGO is the author of The Big, Bad Book of Beasts, God’s Lunatics, Genius and Heroin, The Portable Obituary, the Bram Stoker Award–winning Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die, and three novels. He is the former editor of New York Poetry and the researcher and archivist for the film company Allied Artists. He and his family live in Florida with a dog, two turtles, a parrot, two canaries, and a tank of fish.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
ALSO BY MICHAEL LARGO
NONFICTION
The Big, Bad Book of Beasts
God’s Lunatics
Genius and Heroin
The Portable Obituary
Final Exits
FICTION
Southern Comfort
Lies Within
Welcome to Miami
BACK AD
CREDITS
Cover design by Adam Johnson
Cover illustrations © by Hein Nouwens/Morphart Creation/Shutterstock Images
All of the original drawings in this book were created by the artists of the Tropical Botanic Artists Collective. The group was established in Miami, Florida, in 2006 to pursue the beauty of tropical plants through art. Its members come from all walks of life and each brings a unique viewpoint to his or her work. They share a love of the natural world and it is reflected in their admiration for botanical subjects. They hope that their viewers will take a moment to observe the wonders of minute detail in plants and bring these new powers of observation into everyday life. If you would like to obtain prints, contact them through their website, http://www.tropicalbotanicartists.com.
The Big, Bad Book of Botany Page 26