Pericón: A Culinary Marigold that Will Not Get You High
![Curtis's botanical magazine. London ;New York [etc.] :Academic Press [etc.]. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/471084](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59bae60f1f318d07a99856a4/1605143519787-YXYBVT75T6GAMGQK6ZP4/Tagetes.jpg)
Curtis's botanical magazine. London ;New York [etc.] :Academic Press [etc.]. biodiversitylibrary.org/page/471084
The study of ethnobotany is an umbrella under which many scientific disciplines are employed: botany, archeology, pharmacology, biochemistry, microbiology, linguistics, and ecology are but a few. There is, however, a very vocal faction of enthusiasts bandying about the term who are impossible to ignore: those obsessed with finding obscure ways to get high.
Yes, Tagetes lucida is most often discussed as a plant containing apparent entheogenic compounds (chemicals reported to have some degree of mind altering effect). However, pericón is always mentioned as being used in conjunction with heavyweight psychotropics like peyote to achieve the effect. I could similarly say that lemon peels will get you drunk [caveat] when combined with gin. Anyways, there are plenty of regurgitated articles on Tagetes lucida appearing on multiple darkly hewn websites for druggies and the government agents who love them.
This journey will be vastly different than all of those.
Traveller, we are well within our own power to forge our lives into electric universes we do not wish to escape. Pericón’s use a spice, medicine, and incense can be quite pleasant, however, there are parts of the Tagetes lucida universe that we’d wish to escape if, say, we were an ancient Aztec about to be ritualistically drowned in a lake after dinner.
Welcome to the world an otherwise innocent plant with a deep cultural and culinary roots with an undeserved narcotic notoriety.
No, it will not get you high.
Welcome to the world Tagetes lucida:
Pericón!
"Amateur cultivator's guide to the flower and kitchen garden: containing a descriptive list of two thousand varieties of flower and vegetable seeds; also a list of French hybrid gladiolus" Page 95 (1868)
Family — Asteraceae
Family Characteristics — Plants in the Asteraceae family have composite flowers, meaning, what appears to be one flower will be composed of hundreds of smaller flowers.
Aliases — Mexican Marigold, Mexican mint marigold, Mexican tarragon, Santa Maria herb, Sweet Mace, Texas tarragon; yerbaniz, xpuhuc (YUCATECAN MAYA); yia (K'ICHE’); anís de campo, anisillo, flor de pericón, hierba de nube {meaning: cloud grass}, hierbanis, pericón, planta nublossa (SPANISH); Yyahutli, yahutli, yauhtli , zempoalxochitl (NAHUATL).
Binomial Etymology —Tagetes is widely believed to be a NEW LATIN nod to Tages (the founding prophet of the Etruscan religion). -lucid is derived from the LATIN, lucidus, meaning, “light; clear, shining.” [1]
Binomial Pronunciation: — TA·juh·teez loo-SEE-duh
Mazamitla Centro - Portal Reforma, wooden portales decorated with Tagetes lucida, a native Marigold known as Mexican Tarragon or Pericó, good kitchen herb. Attributed to Cultivar413
Culinary Uses of Pericón
When used as a spice, sweet mace is said to echo the qualities of tarragon and anise. In Mexico, Tagetes lucida is used to flavor corn based dishes [3], and adds much to savory dishes.
Here are a few Spanish language videos on how to prepare a chayote and sweet mace soup, and sweet mace corn. The recipes are somewhat easy to glean through context clues if you don’t understand Spanish all that well.
Pharmacological Ethnobotany of Pericón
Hernando Ruiz De Alarcon, a 17th century Spanish parish priest in colonial Mexico, described the use of pericón incense among the AZTEC in cleansing rituals to combat disease [8].
Francisco Hernández de Toledo— a 16th century colonial-era naturalist and court physician to the king of Spain— gave a richly detailed account of the use of pericón among the AZTEC of Mexico[8]. Thanks to the people of the subreddit r/translator, and—more specifically—the user, u/rocketman0739, the Hernández’s message to the King about Tagetes lucida has been translated.
Hernández, F., Ximénez, F. (1888). Quatros libros de la naturaleza y virtudes medicinales de las plantas y animales de la Nueva España. Morelia: En la Escuela de artes, á cargo de J. R. Bravo.
Hernández, F., Ximénez, F. (1888). Quatros libros de la naturaleza y virtudes medicinales de las plantas y animales de la Nueva España. Morelia: En la Escuela de artes, á cargo de J. R. Bravo.
“They call the yauhtli the cloudy plant, because it has flowers shaped like heads of hair, which sometimes look like clouds, or because it removes clouds from the eyes. The Mexicans are accustomed to call it tzitziqui [Tagetes lucida], which has serrated leaves like a willow, with stems a cubit in length, which spring from a slender root. They are slow flowers, arranged like a hat. The odor and savor differ in no way from anise, and it is thus as well with the taste and everything else, sharp and somewhat bitter.
It favors temperate places like the plains of Mexico, and I have also seen it in hotter places, though it is accustomed to grow in the mountains. It flowers in the rainy season until September, which is the weather that corresponds to our summer weather in Spain. The seed is harvested in November, and the leaves and stems in February, but the root should be harvested in December. And if it is taken to Spain, then as far as my conjecture can tell, it should settle well in the land around Madrid and be of great ornament and beauty to the gardens of the King.
It is hot and dry, almost in the fourth degree. And whatever part of the plant, or every part, or—of course—the whole together, applied to the body in whatever manner, is used to induce urination and menstruation; it expels a dead fetus from the womb; it improves a cough and expels flatulence; it comforts the stomach when it is upset; it corrects bad breath and encourages lactation; it works against poisons; it relieves headache; it improves the insane and those stunned and shocked by lightning; it staunches the flow of blood, relieves the thirst of the dropsical and the chills of the feverish, applied alone or in the burning of incense. They say also that, mixed with the fat of a viper and given to drink, it repairs broken veins. The vapor of its cooking is very useful to stuffed noses. And if it is mashed while green and applied as a poultice on ears which are unwell, they are accustomed to become well. And, applied in the same manner to swellings and abscesses, it cures them. And, heating up, it addresses the stomach...
And in sum, it is a type of Hypericum not known in our Spain.”
The people of MADAGASCAR use sweet mace to combat symptoms of malaria [2].
The people of MEXICO use Tagetes lucida in dried form as a tea to combat colic, nausea [4], and stomach aches [3], .
The Religious Ethnobotany of Pericón Among the Ancient Aztec
Nahuatl pronunciation guide:
Chalchiuhtlicue — chal-chee-oo-TLEE-kweh
Chicomecoatl — chee-coh-meh-QUAL
Huehueteotl — WAY-way-TAY-oh-təl
Huixtocihuatl — ket-SAH-qwa-til
Tlaloc — t-LA-lock
Xilonen — Shi-LO-nen
Among the ancient AZTEC, pericón was used in faith rituals as an incense and was depicted as being held by several gods, namely, Tlaloc (god of rain), Huixtocihuatl (fertility goddess of salt and water ritual), and Chalchiuhtlicue (goddess of water) in various codices[5][7].
When bound with tree resin, the smoke from the pericón incense would form gray clouds that were visually evocative of rain clouds to the ancient Aztecs, and the flowers bloomed from August to October (the rainy season in their empire) [5]. It is no wonder then that Tagetes lucida was not only associated with the aforementioned water deities, but with Huehueteotl (god of fire)[4]. The image below shows a 500-to-820 year old statue of Chalchiuhtlicue with her hands perfectly formed to hold smoldering bundles of pericón incense.
Chalchiuhtlicue was a nurturer goddess to the goddess of salt, Huixtocihuatl, and the goddess of corn and agriculture, Chicomecoatl {name meaning: “Seven Snakes”} [4][6]. The goddess of of unripe corn, Xilonen {meaning: “ear of corn with unripe grains”}, was a precursor goddess to Chicomecoatl [6]
The image from the Codex Maglabecchiano below represents Xilonen holding a staff adorned with pericón flowers [6].
An image of a staff bearing pericón flowers held by the Xilonen (the AZTEC goddess of corn). From the Codex Maglabecchiano (15th century). This images in the public domain.
The scent of pericón incense would have presided over the feast of Etzalqualiztli— which celebrated the god Tlaloc, and the rainy season he brought. The powdered plant would have been burned in an ornate seashell-adorned bag by Tlaloc’s priest dressed in jaguar skin [8][9]. After the revelers had their fill of corn and beans, some were ritually drowned in the lake to conclude the ceremonies [9].
To this very day, in MEXICO, pericón is burned in the corners of cornfields to warn away evil spirits prior to harvest [3], a practice with roots disappearing into the darkest depths of Aztec history.
One is left to wonder if “chicos” — a Spanish word for steamed and dried corn kernels— came from the Aztec goddess Chicomecoatl.
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