X Xi 
Brugmansia Pers. 
Usually considered to represent a subgenus or section of 
Datura L., Brugmansia has recently been shown conclusively on 
biological as well as morphological characters to deserve distinc- 
tion as a genus (Lockwood 1973). Native to South America, the 
nine species are arborescent. All appear to be cultigens unknown 
in the truly wild state (Lockwood 1979). 
The most widespread species, Brugmansia aurea Lagerh., 
occurs throughout the Andes from Colombia to northern Chile 
at elevations of 8,000 to 10,000 feet. Another striking species, B. 
sanguinea (R. & P.) D. Don is native from Colombia to Peru. 
Most of the species were of the greatest social and religious 
importance in ancient Andean cultures (Lockwood 1979). The 
Chibchas of Colombia, for example, administered potions of B. 
aurea to wives and slaves of deceased chieftains to induce a 
stupour prior to their being buried alive with the departed 
master. B. sanguinea was a sacred ceremonial plant in the 
Temple of the Sun in Sogamosa, in northern Colombia, where 
its psychoactive properties must have had a role in religious 
rites. 
Modern Indians of Colombia, Ecuador and Peru still use 
species of Brugmansia in magico-religious and medicinal rites. 
The Mapuche of Chile use it as correctional medicine for 
recalcitrant children, believing that the spirit of ancestors ad- 
monish the youths through the hallucinations. In modern Peru, 
Indians still believe that B. sanguinea permits them to communi- 
cate with ancestors and that, through visual hallucinations, it 
can reveal treasures preserved in graves or “huacas”—the reason 
for its local name Auacacachu (“grave plant”). 
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