Hojas frías, flor de campana. Sobre el uso terapéutico del floripondio (Brugmansia) entre los nahuas
Cold Leaves, Bell Flower. The Therapeutic Use of “Floripondio” (Brugmansia) among the Nahuas of Mexico

Summary/Abstract: This article compares the conceptions and uses of the floripondio (Brugmansia) in three Nahua regions of Mexico: the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Morelos and the Sierra de Texcoco. Analyzing the ethnography collected by the author, the “cold” and “aqueous” nature of the plant is highlighted, and its relevance, as a therapeutic resource, to deal with different diseases and discomforts associated with “heat”. In addition to “water” as an element, the plant is linked to certain bodily states and its dangerousness capable of triggering madness or dumbness in those who consume it, despite its useful sleeping effects derived from controlled use. In this sense, the floripondios are sometimes identified with Datura plants and ritually used as toloache, while, other times, the Daturas are held by varieties of floripondio. Finally, an aspect of the Brugmansia that is distinctive for the Nahuas is addressed: constituting the ideal food to stimulate the development of the chicks of an endemic bird of Mesoamerica, the turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), an animal considered “cold” like the floripondio. The use of this plant, which receives different names according to the regions, and which mainly comprises three species (B. x candida, B. suaveolens and B. aurea), is contextualized both in relation to the therapeutic use of Daturas in the colony and the pre-Columbian era in Mexico –the referent from which floripondios seem to be conceived in Mexico–, as with some ethnographic information related to the shamanic use of the Brugmansia among indigenous groups of South America, its region of origin.

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