We had a great research paper about the Botany of Salvia divinorum posted here, but for the first time, we were asked to remove an article from our ever-expanding database of rare and sacred knowledge by its author. The only other places we found this definitive article on this topic were two: One was on a website that has a wealth of great information about Salvia, but also sells Salvia in the form of dried leaves and extracts at an extremely expensive price, in addition to listing information about how to ingest this sacred plant. Salvia divinorum is certainly not a plant to get high from; it is a plant with a rich, colorful, and isolated botanical history. It grows in one place in the entire world in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico, and it is also deeply rooted in the culture of the Mazatecs. It was also used by Maria Sabina; a figure that has become a cultural icon to so many people throughout the world. We thought our website would be a good home for the article, but we were unfortunately mistaken.
The other place you can still find it is
Salvia divinorum magazine, available
HERE.
This research paper is the best paper we have ever read on this sacred plant, and we wanted
as many people as possible to read it and enjoy it as we did. Yes, we are sorry to lose this particular
article, but we will hopefully have new information about the botany of this
plant posted here in the near future. If we find other sources for the
complete article and botanical data, we will, of course, post them here for your
reference as soon as we are able to do so.
Since we are an ever-growing compendium of information regarding rare and sacred
ethnobotanicals, hoping to help document and preserve ancient knowledge that is
disappearing at an alarming rate, and were proud to display the Botany of Salvia
article, this article is all that remains at the moment. We hope to offer insight
and information about how certain plants interact and even shape cultures, and
how they can often form the basis of religious and spiritual practice, and although Salvia
information can still be found elsewhere on
our website, it is not nearly as extensive as what resided here
previously, especially in relation to the botanical data that was gathered by
this researcher about this plant.
Salvia divinorum can be purchased in many
forms at the most responsible online vender we have encountered;
The IAmShaman Shop.
If you are a scientist or researcher, we would love to include your article in
our not-for-profit website, and we would gladly give you whatever links you
wanted in any way you wished on your article, even if it leads to places that
will generate money for you, just as we do for other authors and websites. We would like to replace this empty space with
another Botany of Salvia article or research paper, as we try to have as
complete and accurate information about as many sacred plants as possible,
especially entheogens and other visionary plants that intertwine religious
beliefs in some way. Although the plant world seems to becoming
further and further removed from our consciousness, plants still are the basis
of 80% of the medications used by humans today. Documenting and keeping
alive the origins of medicines that came from plants, especially one that have
religious implications attached to their use, or ones that are disappearing
because of suppression by various governments, is becoming increasingly
important.
If you have an interest in visionary plants and their effect on the collective consciousness, or if you wish to find out botanical information about the Botany of Salvia divinorum or countless other topics related to the entheogen community, please visit www.entheo-worldeyes.org. They ran this website for some time after it was passed onto them from the first owner, and it has now been passed onto us, and we do our best with the little time we have to keep it updated. Send any requests to us that you may have to admin at entheology dot org, but please be patient in getting a response; we are not often in places with steady internet connections, and we update this website far less often than we used to, but we will get to your request as soon as we are able to.
For now, the public domain WikiShaman entry for Salvia and the botany of it, says only this:
Unlike other species of salvia, Salvia
divinorum produces few seeds, and those seldom germinate. [two lines from the
wikipedia entry were removed here] Partial sterility is often suggestive
of a hybrid origin, although no species have been recognized as possible parent
species. The ability to grow indistinguishable plants from seeds produced by
self pollination also weakens the hybrid theory of origin, instead implying
inbreeding depression, or an undiscovered incompatibility mechanism. The plant
is mainly propagated by cuttings or layering. Although (Valdes, et al)[2]
isolated strands of S. divinorum exist, these are thought to have been purposely
created and tended by the Mazatec people. For this reason, it is considered a
true cultigen, not occurring in a wild state.
All known specimens are clones from a small number of collected plants, two of
which are in major circulation. The Wasson/Hofmann strain, obtained upon request
from a Mazatec shaman in Oaxaca in 1962, and the Blosser ('Palatable') strain,
obtained around 1980. The 'Palatable' strain is said to have a more acceptable
taste than the Wasson/Hofmann strain, although most reports suggest that there
is little difference.
Additional ‘commercial’ strains are in circulation, but all seem to be similar
in potency, effect, and growth. - The numerous different names that can be found
having more to do with marketing than with the formal identification of
botanically distinct strains. (Original article is
HERE.)