Peter Dexter
Well-known member
…is the Kitchwa (Quechua) name for Brugmansia species or common name Angel’s Trumpet, a shrub or small tree that has been used for thousands of years by native peoples of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru for religious purposes. Most Brugmansia species are psychoactive as their leaves , flowers and seeds contain scopolamine. An “overdose” from drinking a tea made from the leaves for example can produce visions and hallucinations but also retrograde amnesia. For that reason it has long been a popular “knock out” drug for robbery in South America because the victim can’t remember what happened. It has been used by some tribes to intensify the hallucinatory effects and religious experience produced by ayahuasca or yagé.
Botanically it is interesting for a number of reasons. When flowering It produces a powerful aroma I liken to a perfumed soap but only from about 6 pm to about 6 am (roughly sunset to sunrise) so it is pollenated by night flying creatures such as insects or bats. During the day there is no scent at all. Another curiosity is that it is considered by the IUCN Red List to be extinct in the wild (I have never seen it growing very far into the woods) and may have been for thousands of years. But it happily springs up near human habitation like country homes, throughout the Andes and is considered a cultivar. Some research suggests it is inclined to disturbed areas which would explain it’s presence near homes in the country side today and Indian communities in the past. It grows very quickly and there are about ten of them on my 8000 square meter lot none of which I planted. Mine are probably B. arborea.
Botanically it is interesting for a number of reasons. When flowering It produces a powerful aroma I liken to a perfumed soap but only from about 6 pm to about 6 am (roughly sunset to sunrise) so it is pollenated by night flying creatures such as insects or bats. During the day there is no scent at all. Another curiosity is that it is considered by the IUCN Red List to be extinct in the wild (I have never seen it growing very far into the woods) and may have been for thousands of years. But it happily springs up near human habitation like country homes, throughout the Andes and is considered a cultivar. Some research suggests it is inclined to disturbed areas which would explain it’s presence near homes in the country side today and Indian communities in the past. It grows very quickly and there are about ten of them on my 8000 square meter lot none of which I planted. Mine are probably B. arborea.