Psychotria viridis belongs to the coffes family (Rubiaceae). It is a small tree to 5 m tall, sometimes a shrub, with green twigs, the leaves are opposite, elliptic, blade to 15 cm long and 6 cm wide, glabrous and shiny green above, pilose on the main veins beneath, secondary (lateral) veins 5-10 pairs with domatia in the vein axils at junction with the midrib; petiole short, 1-9 mm long; stipules interpetiolar, ovate to obovate, 7-15 mm long, bilobed, deciduous or sometimes persistent on distal 1-2 nodes. Inflorescence is terminal, glabrous, on a peduncle 1-10 cm long, with usually 1 pair of basal branches about half as long as the inflorescence, flowers and fruit in dense clusters of 3-8 spaced along the branches and along the main inflorescence axis. Flowers are small, sessile, corolla white, 1-2 mm long including the 5 lobes. Fruit produced in dense clusters, ripening purple-red, subglobose to ellipsoid, 4-6 mm long; pyrenes 2, with 4-5 dorsal ridges.
Information compiled by David Lorence for NTBG.
Wikipedia 2022. Psychotria viridis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotria_viridis. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
The Machiguenga people of Peru use juice from the leaves as eye drops to treat migraine headaches. In Ecuador Kitchwa shamans and medicine men and women have used the leaves of this plant for centuries to treat many illnesses. Leaves of P. viridis contains levels varying from 0.1% to 0.61% dried mass of dimethyltryptamine (DMT). Other alkaloids such as beta-carbolines and N-methyltryptamine (NMT) have been found.
Wikipedia 2022. Psychotria viridis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotria_viridis. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
Psychotria viridis is known primarily as an additive to the ayahuasca brew used in South and Central America. The mechanism of action is via the monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) present in Banisteriopsis caapi, which allows ayahuasca to be effective in oral doses (unlike smoking DMT crystals which requires no conditioning partner substance). This use was made legal in Brazil in 1992 when B. caapi, P. viridis, and the ayahuasca tea were exempted from the list of illicit drugs (Erowid 2001).
Erowid, 2001. Legal status of Ayahuasca in Brazil. Erowid.org. March 2001. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
Wikipedia 2022. Psychotria viridis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotria_viridis. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
Central America (Nicaragua, costa Rica, Panama) to South America (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil) and the Greater Antilles (Cuba).
Wikipedia 2022. Psychotria viridis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychotria_viridis. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
The domatia in this and many other Psychotria species are very small and apparently house mites that clean and maintain the leaves.
We currently have 7 herbarium specimens for Psychotria viridis in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.
