Monday, 19 November 2018 / Published in Culture, Ecolodge, Ethnobotany, Plant Medicine

A peculiar vine now flowers

Each year from December to February, a most peculiar vine flowers. This is the Yagé – Banisteriopsis caapi. This mysterious and now infamous medicinal vine, widely used through out the Amazon basin, is at the central core of hundreds of Indigenous Peoples communities ancestral holistic plant medicine science. Known as Ayahuasca, Ingandu, Caapi, Natem, Pinde and so many other local names.

Banisteriopsis caapi, at our ethnobotanical garden, flowers each year
from December through February.

The Yagé vines flower profusely this time of of the year thanks to the onset of the dry season. Their flowers attract myriad stingless honey bees. Among indigenous peoples communities, the time when the vines flowers are believed to be a celestial summer, and sure enough, when these vines flower is when the weather is most delectable.

The double helix, DNA, like growing patterns add to its peculiarity

Epic sunsets and cool star filled nights mark this time of the year, the celestial summer is upon us, cicadas emerge and begin to sing, and it is time to enjoy the most supreme weather!

In January, when the Yagé flowers, Cicadas fill the air with their high pitched shrills

The garden now going on 18 years of being tended to harbors hundreds of species of native and rare ethnobotanical treasures from Central and South America. Fruit trees that guests enjoy seasonally, aromatic medicinal plants and vines are served in teas at lunch and dinner. Permaculture gardens produce a seasonal abundance of food, vegetables and spices.