[4] The color of the fruit ranges from brown to red and it contains black seeds that are partly covered by white arils.

[5] The color contrast when the fruit is split open has been compared with the appearance of eyeballs,[5] and has become the basis of an origin myth among the Sateré-Mawé people.

According to a myth attributed to the Sateré-Maué tribe, guaraná's domestication originated with a deity killing a beloved village child.

To console the villagers, a more benevolent god plucked the left eye from the child and planted it in the forest, resulting in the wild variety of guaraná.

[9] This plant was introduced to European colonizers and to Europe in the 16th century by Felip Betendorf, Oviedo, Hernández, Cobo and other Spaniard chroniclers.

[citation needed] Guarana is a key plot device in the Murdoch Mysteries episodes "Excitable Chap" and "From Murdoch to Eternity", in which inventor James Pendrick creates an energy drink from a particularly potent strain of guarana, which is ultimately plowed under to make way for the Panama Canal.