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Huanduj: Brugmansia is a horticultural, botanical and ethnobotanical monograph of Brugmansia (Solanaceae), the most potent of South American entheogens (psychoactive plants used for religious/spiritual purposes in shamanic cultures) and one of the most spectacularly beautiful groups of plants. This is the first full taxonomic revision of the genus Brugmansia ever published, and combines original field research and horticultural expertise with a review of well over 600 bibliographic references from the 16th Century to present day, covering a range of fields from anthropology and ethnobotany, through to taxonomy, biology, pathology, biotechnology and horticulture.
Brugmansia is the only widespread continental plant genus of several species known solely in cultivation, and with now nearly 2000 cultivars, Huanduj: Brugmansia for the first time provides a world cultivar register with reference to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. Huanduj: Brugmansia is beautifully illustrated throughout with almost 450 colour photographs, and will be of interest to ethnobotanists, anthropologists, botanists, biologists, horticulturalists, amateur enthusiasts, those breeding and naming new cultivars, and those managing cultivar data.
Alistair Hay is a retired senior research scientist and Director of Botanic Gardens and Public Programs at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. He has been cultivating Brugmansia in warm temperate Australia for 25 years.
"This book's carefully researched information on the natural history, taxonomy, medicinal use, cultivation and ethnobotanical involvement of this singular genus of sumptuous garden plants, together with its ravishing photographs of both the species and the wealth of modern cultivars, will make everyone want to grow them."
- Peter Valder, renowned plantsman and author
"With elegant prose, building on detailed research in the literature and in the field, this beautiful book engagingly dispels the confusion surrounding the taxonomy of this remarkable group of plants. It not only brings current knowledge together in a refreshingly original way but also – just as importantly – points up what we still do not understand about the biology of these enigmatic plants."
- David Mabberley, Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney, and University of Oxford
"Congratulations: the account of shamanic use of Brugmansia is an outstanding piece of scholarship."
- Michael Harner, President, Foundation for Shamanic Studies
