The Garden is located at km 47 of the Iquitos Nauta Road, approximately one hour’s journey by car from Iquitos. A trail, then a footpath, leads to the forest reserve, which extends 10 km onwards from the road. Yakumamay is a shaman’s garden focusing on plants that local healers use in traditional medicine. The area has been partly colonised and affected by deforestation. Still, as shown on this website, the range of plants that residents cultivate or access from the forest and use is impressive
Epiphyte | Shrub/Sub-shrub | Tree| Vine | Palm | Annual/Perennial | Geopyte
These plant categories are, in many ways, arbitrary due to overlaps between them and different perceptions by local plant experts (see notes on plant classification based on colour, size, form and attributed gender of plants*)
Taxonomists acknowledge that distinctions between herbaceous plants, subshrubs, and shrubs and trees are only sometimes clear. Some small trees do not have one clear woody stem, which is the main differentiating feature between trees and shrubs. Some plants are not annuals or perennials, as their life cycles can be variable.
While the category “climber” applies to all climbing plants, here we follow the Amazonian use of the term “vine” (soga) to refer to climbing stems, lianas or runners. Some plants grow as low shrubs when support is unavailable but as vines with tendrils or clinging roots when they have support; they do not qualify as “sogas”. Some vines growing as lianas from or to treetops may take over their tree hosts.
Kichwa Amazonians describe tubers, bulbs, corms, and rhizomes as “papa” (the word for potato). For this reason, we use the general “geophyte” category. In the Yakumamay survey, we stumbled on the use of plant categories, but invariably, Gilber offered additional information about plants’ growth habits, lifecycle, and reproduction to explain his perception.
Bark | Leaves | Roots | Whole plant | Exudates | Fruit | Flowers
Most botanical and some ethnobotanical research ignore Amazonian local perceptions of plants used in shamanic medicine. This website reflects a primary local distinction between “plants with spirit owners”, i.e. “plant teachers”, which require expertise, and plants without spirit owners used in general curing. Shamans (chamanes) in the Iquitos area usually specialise in using a few plants whose associated spirits they are familiar with. However, they can learn about and experiment with many other plants that they use to relieve sickness. Plants with spirit owners are psychoactive in their majority, and some are highly toxic. Traditionally, healers who prepare and administer them follow specific ritual behaviours for their cultivation -or wild harvesting- their propagation and care.
Some plants used in general curing can also require expertise, mainly when toxic. Only “simple plants” can be safely used by all for treating common ailments in households, but there is also a hierarchy of knowledge regarding their use, as in the case of midwives or bonesetters. “Medicinal foods” refer to the fruit or other parts of plants grown or harvested mainly as human food but known to have medicinal value, like cacao or guava.
The plant parts most used medicinally are the leaves and roots. Herbaceous plant leaves are often used raw by manual squeezing (Spanish excrujar), soaked in water, infused, or boiled. In many cases, the whole plant is used, taking advantage of the active principles in the stems. While we know the distinction between roots and tubers as plants’ storage organs and the role of tubers in asexual reproduction, they are both listed as ‘roots’ to reduce the number of categories of plant parts. Tubers and some roots are grated and used raw, but roots are mostly boiled. The bark of tree roots may have separate uses
Medicine (curing generally) | Shamanic Medicine | Pusanga | Medicinal foods
Most botanical and some ethnobotanical research ignore Amazonian local perceptions of plants used in shamanic medicine. This website reflects a primary local distinction between “plants with spirit owners”, i.e. “plant teachers”, which require expertise, and plants without spirit owners used in general curing. Shamans (chamanes) in the Iquitos area usually specialise in using a few plants whose associated spirits they are familiar with. However, they can learn about and experiment with many other plants that they use to relieve sickness. Plants with spirit owners are psychoactive in their majority, and some are highly toxic. Traditionally, healers who prepare and administer them follow specific ritual behaviours for their cultivation -or wild harvesting- their propagation and care.
Some plants used in general curing can also require expertise, mainly when toxic. Only “simple plants” can be safely used by all for treating common ailments in households, but there is also a hierarchy of knowledge regarding their use, as in the case of midwives or bonesetters. “Medicinal foods” refer to the fruit or other parts of plants grown or harvested mainly as human food but known to have medicinal value, like cacao or guava.
The medicinal use of tree and vine barks, many of which contain alkaloids, is a specific feature of Kichwa medicine and shamanic medicine. The outer bark is differentiated from the inner bark. Two or three layers of inner bark may be distinguished, leading to the core tissue of the wood (Quechua Shungu). For simplicity, “wood” is not a separate category because of its overlap with timber. The branches of some trees and vines are sectioned so that wood and bark are used together, most often boiled in decoctions. Exudates, substances that plants release from stems, roots and seeds include resin or gums, produced to repair injury to barks; latex, a secretion of some plants when cut, commonly used medicinally by Indigenous Amazonians.
Planted | Food | Wild | Shade | Social Uses | Power Plant| Power Plant M | Tended
This categorization is based on ecological relevance. Some plants are cultivated for food, managed to ensure a reliable supply. Conversely, wild food plants grow naturally and are foraged. Timber plants are cultivated for wood, used in construction, crafting, or fuel, while certain trees are preserved primarily for shade, creating microclimates that protect other garden plants.
Economically driven plants are cultivated for sale, often serving multiple purposes. Social plants include those with medicinal uses accessible without specialized knowledge, vital for community health and cultural rituals. In shamanic practices, “power plants” are handled by experts due to their believed spiritual powers, sometimes linked to a “Mother Spirit” and often psychotropic. Wild power plants are recognized for their inherent powers but aren’t tied to a Mother Spirit.
Some wild plants are actively managed within their environments, while others occupy a space between wild and cultivated states, reflecting complex ecological relationships.
Animals and humans eat many fruits harvested in the Yakumamay garden. Both planted and wild fruit trees have nutritional and medicinal uses that local people value. During our survey Gilber commented on the pollinators and the birds or mammals who dispersed seeds, and the time of flowering and fruiting in the annual cycle. Flowers are harvested for medicinal plant baths and Pusanga preparations to promote good fortune
Local knowledge about the medicinal properties of plants surveyed in Yakumamay is complemented by reference to the availability of phytochemical or pharmacological research. This research could not be detailed in the Live Plant map, but references can be requested via the contacts page