Teacher plants
Plants “with a mother” that Peruvian Amazonian healers believe give knowledge to their apprentices.
Healers in East-Central Peru call a group of plants at the heart of initiation and apprenticeship “plantas con madre”, plants with a mother. They are believed to guide the apprentice towards sacred knowledge, plant use and healing [1].
The plants are taken within a strict regime called the “dieta”, supervised by an experienced master healer (maestro curandero). A 2011 field study with Mestizo and Shipibo-Konibo healers recorded 55 species used in this way [1]. The dieta is a retreat-like practice combining restrictions on social life, behaviour and diet with specially prepared plants [2].
Chiric sanango is known as one of these teacher plants; its name means “the one that makes you cold” in Quechua. Many of these plants are potent and are used within their own tradition under a master’s guidance; they appear here as a cultural record.