Coca is by far the most important plant of ancient and contemporary Andean people, yet it is largely misunderstood and maligned by the rest of the world. Coca provides important nutritional needs, acclimatization to altitude, and is integral to the cycles of reciprocity in the Andean worldview, it’s immense spiritual and cosmological import within the religious systems of the Andean peoples can not be understated.

 

Erythroxylum coca, Tim Plowman & Wade Davis collection, Herbarium, Natural Hisotry Museum, Lima

 

Erythroxylum coca v. ipadu, Tim Plowman, Richard Schultes & O. Tovar collection, Herbarium, Natural History Museum

 

 

Erythroxylum novogranatense, Tim Plowman collection, Herbarium, Natural History Museum, Lima

 

Erythroxylum novogranatense v. truxillense, Tim Plowman collection, Herbarium, Natural Hisotry Museum

 

coca fields near Chulumani, Yungas

 

coca drying, Irupana, Yungas

 

coca & llipta, photo by H. Waller

 

coca vendor, Puno, Peru, photo by H. Waller

 

coca & llipta, Puno, Peru

 

llipta & coca, Puno, Peru

 

Hoja sagrada, photo by H. Waller

 

Chuspa, detail by Efrain Ortuno, La Paz, Bolivia

 

Hoja Millenaria by R. Usnayo, La Paz, Bolivia

 

Art by R. Usnayo, La Paz, Bolivia

 

mirrors, Coca Museum, R. Usnayo, La Paz, Bolivia