Psychedelic Abstracts
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Desfontainia spinosa
The New York Botanical Garden Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horticulture; rSB317.58
DESFONTAINIA (desfont-ainia): One of the handsomest of temperate South American flowering shrubs. the only cultivated Desfontainia is one of possibly five species of the Andes of Chile and Peru. It belongs in the logania family, Loganiaceae. Its name, often spelled Desfontainea, commemorates the French botanist Rene Louiche Desfontaines, who died in 1833. Hardy only in mild climates, such as that of California, Desfontainia spinosa when out of bloom looks much like an evergreen English holly (Ilex aquifolium), but is immediately distinguishable because its leaves are opposite instead of alternate. The shrub is bushy and attains a maximum height of about 10 feet, but is often smaller. It has pale, glossy branches and broad-elliptic to ovate, lustrous, spiny leaves 1 inch to 2 1/2 inches long. The flowers, which come in summer and fall, are quite astonishing on such a holly-like plant. They are in terminal clusters and because of their shape and striking colors have a decided fire-cracker or decorative candy appearance. They are tubular-funnel-shaped, about 1 1/2 inches long, bright crimson-scarlet, and tipped with five small yellow corolla lobes (petals). Each has a five-lobed, green calyx with its margins fringed with hairs. There are five stamens. The fruits are egg-shaped, many-seeded berries. GARDEN AND LANDSCAPE USES: This choice evergreen is admirable for displaying prominently in shrub borders, foundation plantings, and other landscape settings, and as an individual specimen. When well placed and thriving it is a splendid addition to almost any garden. For its best satisfaction it needs a little broken shade as protection from the hottest sun, and deep, moderately fertile, encouraging soil, never excessively dry. CULTIVATION: Desfontainias can be raised from cuttings, about 3 inches long, taken in summer and rooted under mist or in a greenhouse propagating bed, but the best results are had from seeds sown in sandy peaty soil kept moderately moist. The seedlings should be shaded lightly from strong sun. Established specimens are grateful for an organic mulch maintained around them and for watering thoroughly and regularly during dry weather. They need no pruning, except the occasional shortening of an unruly shoot to keep them shapely, and any cutting necessary to limit their size. Spring is the season to attend to this.
Simmons, Ozzie G.
Popular and Modern Medicine in Mestizo Communities of Coastal Peru and Chile.
Journal of American Folk- Lore 68:57-72. (1955)
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