Palicourea tomentosa is a large shrub. The inflorescences are carried upright or semi-erect and are surrounded by large bracts, colored a conspicuous red, that attract pollinators. The flowers themselves are inconspicuous, with the small yellow petals and sepals forming a narrow corollar tube. Pollinators are mainly hummingbirds, namely small hermit (Phaethornithinae) species like the black-throated hermit (Phaethornis atrimentalis), straight-billed hermit (P. bourcieri) and reddish hermit (P. ruber). They do not insert their bills deeply into the small flowers, and thus the pollinators of the sore-mouth bush include curved- and straight-billed species alike.[2]
In 2011, Hungarian botanist Attila Borhidi published reclassification of Mexican Psychotria species, transferring Psychotria poeppigiana into Palicourea tomentosa based on Tapogomea tomentosa.[3] This reclassification has been accepted by Kew.[4]
"... flowers of Psychotria poeppigiana [...] are wrapped in a piece of cloth and affixed to a dog's collar so that it may more easily find the enormous, highly desirable, and decidedly uncommon tapir"[6]
Palicourea tomentosa has several uses in folk medicine; it is widely used as a painkiller besides having some more specialized applications.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The Tiriyó of Suriname crush and boil the plant and use the resulting decoction to treat headaches, sprains, rheumatism, muscular pains and bruises.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The Wayana, also of Surinam, grind the bark and apply it raw to a particular rash known to them as poispoisi. The bracts are crushed to release the sap, which is then applied into the ear canal to relieve earaches.Script error: No such module "Unsubst". The decoction from the inflorescence, boiled whole, is credited with antitussive qualities and used as a whooping cough remedy and more generally to treat respiratory tract infections, as are decoctions of the leaves of ssp. barcellana.[5]
It also contains dimethyltryptamine,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". though as suggested by the use native peoples make of it probably not in quantities to render it strongly psychedelic.
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References
<templatestyles src="smallcaps/styles.css"/>Balée, William (1994): Footprints of the Forest: Ka'apor Ethnobotany – the Historical Ecology of Plant Utilization by an Amazonian People. Columbia University Press, New York.
<templatestyles src="smallcaps/styles.css"/>DeFilipps, R.A.; Maina, S.L. & Crepin, J. (2004): Medicinal Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana). Department of Botany, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. PDF fulltext
<templatestyles src="smallcaps/styles.css"/>Rodríguez-Flores, Claudia Isabel & Stiles, F. Gary (2005): Análisis ecomorfológico de una comunidad de colibríes ermitaños (Trochilidae, Phaetorninae) y sus flores en la Amazonia colombiana. [Ecomorphological analysis of a community of hermit hummingbirds (Trochilidae, Phaethorninae) and their flowers in Colombian Amazonia]. Ornitología Colombiana3: 7-27 [Spanish with English abstract]. PDF fulltext
Govaerts, R., Ruhsam, M., Andersson, L., Robbrecht, E., Bridson, D., Davis, A., Schanzer, I., Sonké, B. (2019). World Checklist of Rubiaceae. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; https://wcsp.science.kew.org/namedetail.do?name_id=466178 Retrieved 25 June 2019
