22 Facts About Salvia divinorum

Salvia divinorum is a plant species with transient psychoactive properties when its leaves are consumed by chewing, smoking, or as a tea.

Botanists have not determined whether Salvia divinorum is a cultigen or a hybrid because native plants reproduce vegetatively and rarely produce viable seed.

Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of Salvia divinorum to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions.

Salvia divinorum is legal in some countries including the U S, although many states have passed laws criminalizing it.

Genus name, Salvia divinorum, was first used by Pliny for a plant that was likely Salvia divinorum officinalis and is derived from the Latin salvere.

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The specific epithet, Salvia divinorum, was given because of the plant's traditional use in divination.

Albert Hofmann, who collected the first plants with Wasson, objected to the new plant being given the name divinorum: "I was not very happy with the name because Salvia divinorum means "Salvia of the ghosts", whereas Salvia divinatorum, the correct name, means "Salvia of the priests".

Salvia divinorum is native to the Sierra Mazateca in Oaxaca, Mexico, where it is still used by the Mazatec, primarily to facilitate shamanic visions in the context of curing or divination.

Speculation includes Salvia divinorum being a wild plant native to the area; a cultigen of the Mazatecs; or a cultigen introduced by another indigenous group.

Salvia divinorum was first recorded in print by Jean Basset Johnson in 1939 while he was studying Mazatec shamanism.

Salvia divinorum later documented its usage and reported its effects through personal testimonials.

Salvia divinorum is endemic to the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca in Mexico, growing in the primary or secondary cloud forest and tropical evergreen forest at elevations from 300 to 1, 830 metres.

Salvia divinorum produces few viable seeds even when it does flower—no seeds have ever been observed on plants in the wild.

Salvia divinorum was first documented in 1939, but it was many years before botanists could identify the plant due to Mazatec secrecy about the growing sites.

Until 2010, there were differing opinions on whether Salvia divinorum is an interspecific hybrid.

Origin of Salvia divinorum is still a mystery, one of only three plants in the extensive genus Salvia (approximately 900 species) with unknown origins—the other two are Salvia tingitana and Salvia buchananii.

Salvia divinorum is becoming more widely known and used in modern culture.

Interest in Salvia divinorum has been escalating in the news media, particularly in the United States, where an increasing number of newspaper reports have been published and television news stories broadcast.

Salvia divinorum can be grown as an ordinary houseplant without the need of special equipment such as hydroponics or high-power lights.

Salvia divinorum is considered a Schedule 9 prohibited plant in Australia under the Poisons Standard.

Salvia divinorum has been banned by various branches of the U S military and some military bases.

In light of this it is argued that Salvia divinorum could be better understood more positively as an entheogen rather than pejoratively as a hallucinogen.