Botanic AL MrshiM Lkaflets Vol. 29, No. 2 



Spring 1983 



THE BIOGEOGRAPHY OF PEYOTE 



IN SOUTH TEXAS 



Ghorgh R. Morgan* 



One of the most important economic plants within the subtrop- 

 ical flora of south Texas has been the Peyote cactus {Lophophora 

 Williamsii (Lem.) Coulter. Due to the plant's hallucinogenic 

 properties, Pre-Columbian tribes o{ south Texas, such as Coa- 

 huiltecan speaking peoples, gathered Peyote for their religious 

 ceremonies. The plant has long been included in the Mexican 

 pharmacopeia, having been used mainly for headaches and fe- 

 vers. In the nineteenth century, tribes living outside the region 

 adopted the plant for religious use and as a panacea medicine. 

 Indians from Oklahoma and farther north pilgrimaged to south 

 Texas to procure a supply of the psychotropic cactus. Profes- 

 sional Peyote traders, known as Peyoteros among Spanish speak- 

 ing people, but called 'Teyotedealers"among Indians, developed 

 their practice probably in the later nineteenth century as suppliers 

 of the cactus to Indians living outside the region. 



This study focuses upon the biogeography of Peyote within its 

 commercial range, with emphasis upon the dynamics of the 

 plant's population changes in distribution and abundance due to 



man's intervention. 



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ico; the Texas borderlands are the northern edge of the plant's 

 range on the continent (fig. 1). Peyote is rare in west Texas; it is 

 questionable that the plant was common there in historic times. 



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♦Visiting Scholar in Ethnobotany, Botanical Museum, Harvard University ( 1980). Pres- 

 ent address: Chadron State College. Geography Department, Chadron, Nebraska 69337. 



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