Rivea corymbosa
Rivea corymbosa flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Subkingdom: Tracheobionta Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Solanales Family: Convolvulaceae Genus: Rivea Species: corymbosa
Binomial name
Rivea corymbosa (L.)Hallier f.,
Synonyms
Turbina corymbosa (L.)Raf. Ipomoea corymbosa (L.)Roth Convolvulus corymbosus L. Ipomoea burmannii Choisy

Rivea corymbosa (common synonym: Turbina corymbosa), is a species of morning glory plants, native throughout Latin America from Mexico in the North to Peru in the South and widely naturalised elsewhere. It is a perennial climbing vine with white flowers, often planted as an ornamental.

Known to natives of Mexico as Ololiuhqui (also spelled ololiuqui), its seeds, while little known outside of Mexico, were perhaps the most common hallucinogenic drug used by the natives.

In 1941, Richard Evans Schultes first identified ololiuhqui as Rivea corymbosa and the chemical composition was first described on August 18, 1960, in a paper by Dr. Albert Hofmann. The seeds contain ergoline alkaloids similar in structure to LSD.

The Nahuatl word ololiuhqui means "round thing," and refers to the small, brown, oval seeds of the morning glory, not the plant itself, which is called coaxihuitl, "snake-plant," in Nahuatl, and hiedra or bejicco in the Spanish language. The seeds, in Spanish, are sometimes called semilla de la Virgen (little seeds of the Virgin Mary).

The seeds are also used by Native curers in order to gain knowledge in curing practices and ritual, aswell as the causes for the illness.

External links

• PLANTS database entry (http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/plant_profile.cgi?symbol=TUCO)
• Erowid Morning Glory vault (http://www.erowid.org/plants/morning_glory/morning_glory.shtml)