growing near Las Huaringas. The roots of Valeriana officinalis 

 L. contain valerianic acid which, when ingested in medicinal 

 doses, acts as a stimulating tonic, anti-spasmodic and calmative. 

 Excessive doses result in headaches, mental excitement, visual 

 illusions, giddiness, restlessness, agitation and spasmodic move- 

 ments (Hutchens 1973: 286). 



The magic plants recognized by don Pancho Guarnizo are by 

 no means found only besides the sacred lakes. San Pedro grows 

 predominantly at the lower elevations in the environs of 

 Huancabamba. Also close to Huancabamba, found only on the 

 steep slopes of an isolated geological formation known as the 

 Cerro Colorado, there occurs a second species of psychoactive 

 cactus n^med pishicol (Armatocereus laetus (HBK.) Backeberg) 

 {Davis 759). This plant, previously unreported as an hallucino- 

 gen, is an extremely rare endemic known from only four 

 localities, all in northern Peru: Jaen, east of the Abra Porculla 

 on the boundary of the departments of Piura and Cajamarca, 

 Sondorillo, and Huancabamba on the Rio Huancabamba 

 (Zimmerman pers. comm..). It is a tall columnar, night-blooming 

 cactus (12 feet), with erect, articulated branches with six to eight 

 ribs. According to Dr. Allan Zimmerman, an expert in the 

 neotropical Cactaceae, there are two oih^v Armatcx-ereus species 

 in the region, but "one {A. Rauhii Backeb, has shorter spines 

 and is a tall slender tree; the other {A. Ghiesbreghtii (K. 

 Schumann) Ritter. var, oligogonus (Rauh. et. Backeberg) 

 Ritter.) has stems that are only four to five ribbed." (Zimmer- 

 man pers. comm.). 



Pishicol is considered by don Pancho Guarnizo to be as 

 powerful as San Pedro and is prepared and ingested in a similar 

 way: that is, three or four pieces a foot and a half long are sliced 

 transversely, placed in a five gallon can of water and boiled for 

 several hours. Phytochemical analysis of the species is now 

 underway, and the results will be presented in a future 

 publication. 



An outstanding ethnobotanical problem associated with the 

 Huancabamba cults yet adequately to be resolved concerns the 

 botanical meaning of the .term amom. Cruz-Sanchez (1948: 253) 

 suggested that cimora was the term applied to a particular 



378 



