[6][7] The label on the type specimen bears the Latin description flores coccinei i.e. 'flowers deep red', whereas subsequent authors have referred to them as variously 'violet',[8] 'red'[9] and atro-violaceus (dark violet)[7] on the chromotaxy scale devised by Pier Andrea Saccardo.

[5] The plant first entered the scientific record in the mid 19th century with the publication of the Linnaean binomial Lycioplesium pubiflorum by German botanist and phytogeographer August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach in 1854.

[10] Grisebach described the plant (under the name Lycioplesium pubiflorum) from a specimen collected by Lechler near the city of Ancud on the north coast of Chiloé Island.

This reflects the fact that, while the machi of today are usually female, historically this important rôle as practitioner of the sacred was often filled by transvestite or homosexual men, or intersex individuals.

[18] An element originally of the Valdivian temperate rainforest, Latua is to be found increasingly in areas occupied by fields and pastures as a result of extensive deforestation undertaken to produce timber and devote land to grazing.

[5] In the northern part of its range, in the provinces of Osorno and Valdivia, Latua pubiflora is Spring-flowering and Autumn-fruiting, the flowers starting to appear in October at the beginning of the rainy season and the fruits being borne in February and March.

[8][20][21][22] Unsurprisingly for a tropane-rich Solanaceous plant, the effects produced by consumption of Latua pubiflora closely resemble those of intoxication by the infamous relative Datura stramonium: dry mouth, a hot and feverish feeling in the body, eyes with greatly dilated pupils and blurred vision, frothing at the mouth (from thickening of saliva),[23] acute mental disturbances and 'insanity', convulsions, delirium, and hallucinations.

Sparre attended the party ( where he seems to have made an unsuccessful pass at a local girl ) in his bufuddled condition and was later put to bed by a friend, without having any memory of the fact.

Later that night he awoke with a feeling of claustrophobia and injured himself slightly, while blundering about in a very confused state in search of the toilet, having finally to be physically restrained and locked in his room by the same friend.

[25]Sparre had returned to normal by the evening of January the 4th when he regained the ability to read, which had deserted him during the experience [explicable partly by blurred vision due to mydriasis].

A major cause of accidental poisoning by Latua is its unfortunate similarity (when not in flower) to the Tayu tree Dasyphyllum diacanthoides ( family Asteraceae ), the bark of which is a source of popular remedies ( both topical and oral ) for blunt trauma.

Philippi wrote in 1861 It has been six years now since I first learned that the Indians of the Province of Valdivia possess a secret way of producing insanity with a poisonous plant, for a long or short time depending on the dose.

Padre Romualdo, a missionary in Daglipulli, succeeded in learning that the plant is a tall shrub called latué which grows in the forests of the coastal mountains.

[26]and 110 years later Plowman could still observe ...the occurrence of Latua and its use is a closely guarded secret surrounded by much superstition, since the plant is employed primarily by local shamans and sorcerers in their magical healing rites.

Plowman changed this image by bringing to scientific attention the testimony of one Rolando Toro, a psychologist from Santiago, who is the first person recorded in the literature as having actually witnessed the consumption of Latua as an entheogen by Machi.

[28]Prior to this, in 1953, Dr. Benkt Sparre, Curator at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, although he never actually witnessed himself a ceremony in which Latua was consumed by Machi, had recorded the following hearsay: According to explanations by elderly villagers of La Posada, who had not tried latue themselves, an infusion was prepared in the evening with green leaves and bark.

Toro states that such ceremonies are always held at night and are believed to be effective in curing every type of infirmity, whether physical or mental, and likens them to "a witches' sabbath with curative ends".

The night setting is readily understandable, given that Solanaceous narcotics like Latua dilate the pupils of the eye widely, as in low light intensities, a physiological effect which would make their use during the day unpleasantly dazzling for the consumer.

[28] As in many types of New World, shamanic, curing rituals, not only the patient, but also the healer consumes "medicine": Toro describes the machi conducting the ceremony drinking doses of a Latua infusion at 20 -30 minute intervals in order to enter the altered state of consciousness in which healing is believed to be possible, before slowly beginning to sing and dance in a circle.

[28] This rhythmic, rather zombie-like dancing is kept up for some 4 -6 hours, interspersed with prayers which exhibit a syncretism between traditional Huilliche beliefs and Christianity - of which prayers Toro gives the following example: Con un tizón ardiendo [ trans: With a flaming torch ] Cristo quema el mal [ trans: Christ burns the evil ] De vientro de (...)

[ trans: From the belly of ( here the name of the patient ) ][28]The physical aspect of the treatment consists of three actions believed to cast out the demons of disease from the patient's body: first he or she is slapped with the malodorous branches of another poisonous, Solanaceous shrub Cestrum parqui, known locally by the name palqui; secondly he/she is made to drink an emetic potion [ingredients unspecified] and thirdly his/her face is covered with the skin stripped from the genitals ( scrotum?)

[17] Some machi ingest palo de bruja (Latua pubiflora) or the seeds of the miyaya, or chamico, plant (Datura stramonium) in order to produce hallucinations, divine the future, exorcise evil spirits, and treat pain, mental illness, asthma and rheumatism.

[17]Such a "purist" attitude and practice may be contrasted with Plowman's remarks concerning the general behaviour of machi in the 1970s and earlier : The machi's training period is devoted to developing her psychic abilities through various methods: intense mental concentration and meditation, chanting, fasting, violent exercise in the form of whirling dances [compare Sufi whirling], auto-hypnosis and the constant use of narcotics.