THE BOTANY OF SALVIA DIVINORUM

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.)