Latua

Latua
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Subfamily: Solanoideae
Genus: Latua
Phil.
Species:
L. pubiflora
Binomial name
Latua pubiflora
Synonyms[1]

Latua venenosa Phil.
Lycioplesium puberulum F.Phil.
Lycioplesium pubiflorum Griseb. (basionym)

Latua pubiflora (common name in Spanish: árbol de los brujos, tree of the sorcerers) is the single species of the monotypic genus Latua, endemic to the coastal mountains of southern Chile. A shrub or small tree to 10 m in height, bearing attractive, magenta-to-red, hummingbird-pollinated flowers, it is extremely poisonous – hallucinogenic (deliriant) in smaller doses – due to tropane alkaloid content and is used by Chilean machi (shamans) of the Mapuche–Huilliche people in traditional medicine, as a poison and to enter trance states. Its elegant flowers and yellow tomato-like fruit are attractive enough to merit cultivation as an ornamental (despite the extreme toxicity).[2][3][4]

  1. ^ "Latua". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 21 January 2018.
  2. ^ Armando T. Hunziker: The Genera of Solanaceae. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag K.G., Ruggell, Liechtenstein 2001. ISBN 3-904144-77-4
  3. ^ Schultes, Richard Evans; Hofmann, Albert (1979). The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens (2nd ed.). Springfield Illinois: Charles C. Thomas.
  4. ^ Emboden, William, Narcotic Plants – Hallucinogens, stimulants, inebriants, and hypnotics, their origins and uses 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, pub. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., New York 1979, ISBN 0-02-535480-9.