Tagetes lucida | Mexican Tarragon | Pericón

Description

Organic Wild Mexican Tagetes lucida (Mexican Tarragon)

We are delighted to offer top quality Tagetes lucida to you. We managed to source a wonderful quality stock in the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico through local friends that also gather our Mimosa hostilis.

Tagetes lucida is a perennial plant native to Mexico and Central America. Tagetes lucida is a member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae or Compositae). It is used as a medicinal plant and as a culinary herb. The leaves have a tarragon-like flavor, with hints of anise. The Aztecs grew Mexican Tarragon for culinary, medicinal, and ritual uses. It was thought of as treating the illnesses of the gods. The Aztecs also burned Mexican Tarragon as incense, and the flowers were used decoratively in many religious ceremonies. It is still used today to ward off ‘evil spirits’ and in the corners of the cornfield before the harvest. In Aztec culture it was dedicated to the Tlaloc, the god of rain and lightning, and was therefore responsible for ‘wet’ illnesses like colds and rheumatism.

Traditional Uses

Tagetes lucida was used by the Aztecs in a ritual incense known as Yauhtli. The Aztecs allegedly used Tagetes lucida as one of the ingredients in a medicinal powder which was blown into the faces of those about to become the victims of human sacrifice and which may have possessed stupefying or anxiolytic properties. The plant was linked to the rain god Tlaloc. The plant is also used by the Huichol, mixed with Nicotiana rustica (a potent wild tobacco), for its claimed psychotropic and entheogenic effects.

The Mexican Indians have attributed marigolds with magical properties since pre-Columbian times. One variety was thought to be the manifestation of Xochipilli, the god of psychoactive plants, by the Aztecs. The Maya used this flower as an additive to their sacred balché drink. It is said that contemporary Mayan shamans still use Tagetes lucida, which they call xpuhuc in shamanic rituals. The Mixe of Oaxaca drink a tea made from nine Tagetes flowers for divination (Ratsch 1998, 496).

More Information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagetes_lucida

Our products are not certified by the FDA neither Health Canada for human consumption. They are sold for incense and soap making purposes, decorative purposes and/or legitimate ethnobotanical research. Our products are not sold and intended for human consumption. The information given about the plants is for academic purposes only and not intended to be used medically. Wakingherbs.com, its suppliers, agents, employees and distributors cannot be held accountable for any misuse of the products offered.