Smart Seeds: Mescaline Cactus and Ethnobotanical Plant Seeds

Picture two seed trays going by spring. One is a gritty mineral mix with cactus seed dusted over the top, a pot you'll still own in ten years. The other is soft potting soil with poppies and daggas in it, filling a border by August. That's the honest split on this smartshop shelf: species that make you wait, and species that get on with it. Both are worth a tray, and most people end up with one of each. Nothing here turns around in three weeks the way a magic mushroom grow kit does. These are botanical projects measured in seasons, and what you get at the end is a living plant with a documented place in the ethnobotany of the Andes, the Chihuahuan desert, the South African Karoo or the Indian subcontinent.

What Are Smart Seeds?

Smart seeds is simply the shelf name for seed of ethnobotanical species: plants with a documented history of traditional use somewhere in the world, sold as seed for you to grow. There is no single family or growth habit involved, which is why a columnar Andean cactus sits next to a Mediterranean poppy and a South African mint relative. What they share is a paper trail in the ethnographic and botanical literature, and a place on a windowsill or in a border. Think of them as garden and collection projects first, with the reading you do around them as part of the appeal.

Echinopsis pachanoi, peruviana, lageniformis: The Mescaline Cacti

Mescaline is the principal alkaloid associated with this group, and it is the reason the columnar Trichocereus species of the Andes and the small globular Lophophora of Mexico turn up side by side in the archaeological and ethnographic record, from Chavin-period stonework in Peru to Huichol accounts in Mexico. As seed, though, they are simply cacti: fine, light-hungry, and slow.

The Columnar Andean Trichocereus Group

San Pedro (Echinopsis pachanoi) is the one people search for by name, and it's the quickest of the columnar cacti here. In the wild it grows on Andean slopes in Peru and Ecuador between roughly 2,000 and 3,000 metres, forming ribbed blue-green columns with widely spaced spines that branch from the base and can pass 3 metres in old specimens. It tolerates more water and more humidity than desert cacti, which is why a peat-based cactus and succulent soil suits it, and why seedlings appreciate high humidity under a lid while they germinate. Established plants can put on 20 to 30 cm in a good summer, so a bright windowsill will hold one for several years before it wants a greenhouse or a sheltered patio in summer. Peruvian Torch (Echinopsis peruviana) comes from the western Peruvian slopes and has a more silvery blue-grey skin with longer honey-coloured spines; it likes sharper drainage and full sun and is a touch slower. Bolivian Torch (Echinopsis lageniformis) comes from the dry valleys of Bolivia, is a glaucous green, spines freely, branches early and is one of the more vigorous growers once past the seedling stage. Echinopsis macrogona (Trichocereus macrogonus) sits in the same group of tall Andean species, with thicker stems and fewer, blunter ribs.

Each of those comes as 20 seeds, and the seed itself is barely bigger than ground pepper, so sow it on the surface and resist the urge to bury it; it needs light as well as warmth of around 20 to 25C to break dormancy. The Prickly Pack bundles Peyote, Peruvian Torch, San Pedro, Bolivian Torch and Echinopsis macrogona seeds together with cactus nutrients, which is the easier route into all five than buying them one by one. Because seedlings need three or four years before they read as a proper column, plenty of growers run a tray and keep a rooted specimen alongside it as a reference point: the same species are available as established live plants, whether that's San Pedro, Peruvian Torch or the Bolivian Torch.

Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) and Aztec Cactus (Aztekium ritteri)

Peyote is a native of the Chihuahuan desert, from southern Texas down to San Luis Potosi, and it grows as a pale blue-green globular button rather than a column: no spines, tufts of white wool at the areoles, a fat taproot below and pink or white flowers from the crown once the plant is several years old. It wants very mineral soil, a mix of roughly 50% sand, 25% grit or bims and 25% regular potting soil, a minimum of 10C, a dry winter rest and as much direct sun as you can give it. Growth is measured in millimetres a year, so a seed-raised plant may take the better part of a decade to fill a 6 cm pot, and it will never outgrow a windowsill. Growers who want a mature button to look at while the tray ticks over often keep a live Peyote plant as well. Aztec Cactus (Aztekium ritteri) is the collector's item on this shelf: a tiny wrinkled grey-green rosette from limestone cliffs in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, and one of the slowest-growing cacti anyone bothers to raise from seed. It prefers bright shade to scorching midday sun, an almost entirely mineral substrate, and years of being left alone. Watch out for the timescale, because both of these spend their first couple of years looking like something you spilled. If you want visible height in one season, sow San Pedro instead.

Daggas, Vines, Ephedras and Poppies

The Daggas and Their Mint-Family Relatives

Wild Dagga (Leonotis leonurus) is a South African shrub from the Eastern Cape, growing woody at the base and throwing up square stems to 2 metres topped with whorls of furry orange tubular flowers that pull in birds and bees. Seed germinates readily at around 20C, usually inside three weeks, and the plant flowers in its first or second year; treat it as a tender perennial, keep it in a large pot and move it somewhere frost free over winter. Klip Dagga (Leonotis nepetifolia) is its tropical African cousin, now naturalised across the tropics, and behaves as a fast annual: a single ramrod stem to 3 metres carrying spherical spiky flower heads stacked one above the other. Marihuanilla (Leonurus sibiricus) is the Asian member of the same mint family, from Siberia, Mongolia and northern China, an annual or biennial with finely cut leaves and small pink flowers that is the hardiest and easiest of the three and will self-seed happily in a border.

Vines, Climbers and Legumes

Hawaiian Baby Woodrose (Argyreia nervosa) is a woody perennial climber from the Indian subcontinent with big heart-shaped leaves that are silvery-felted underneath, and it is genuinely large: give it 3 metres of trellis, a warm conservatory or a greenhouse in a temperate climate. It's sold as 10 seeds, and there's a Madagascar variety too with smaller, darker seed. The seeds are hard-coated and woolly, need sustained warmth above 25C, and germinate unevenly over weeks rather than days. Morning Glory (Ipomoea tricolor) from Mexico and Central America is the opposite: a fast annual climber that runs 2 to 4 metres in a season and covers itself in sky-blue funnel flowers, sown direct once frosts have passed. Black Oil Plant (Celastrus paniculatus) is a scrambling Indian climbing shrub long recorded in Ayurvedic texts, with hard seed that benefits from scarification and warmth and is slow to establish.

Mucuna pruriens

Velvet Bean (Mucuna pruriens) is a vigorous twining annual legume of tropical Africa and Asia that fixes nitrogen, germinates quickly from large seed, and carries pods covered in fine hairs that itch fiercely on contact, so wear gloves at harvest. Give it warm ground and something solid to climb, because it will smother a flimsy cane in a season. The seed is big enough to handle one at a time, which makes it a relief after a tray of dust-fine cactus seed. It also has a long-standing reputation across West Africa and India as a natural aphrodisiac.

Other Ethnobotanical Seeds: Shrubs, Ephedras and Karoo Succulents

Khat (Catha edulis) is an evergreen shrub or small tree of the Ethiopian highlands and the Arabian Peninsula, with glossy leaves and reddish new growth; its seed is best sown fresh, germinates slowly and irregularly, and the plant is frost-tender, so a deep pot indoors suits it. The ephedras Ma Huang (Ephedra sinica), from the Mongolian and north Chinese steppe, and Green Mormon Tea (Ephedra viridis), from the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, form stiff broom-like clumps of jointed yellow-green stems with almost no true leaves, cope with poor sandy ground and cold winters, and grow slowly in their first year. Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), from India and the drier Mediterranean, behaves as a bushy annual to about 1 metre in cooler climates and carries orange berries inside papery calyces; it germinates easily in warmth and is one of the simplest plants here. Kanna (Sceletium tortuosum) is a low creeping succulent from the South African Karoo with fleshy leaves and fringed white to pale pink flowers, recorded in early accounts of San and Khoikhoi plant use. Its seed is dust-fine and needs surface sowing, light and warmth, and the seedlings rot in cold damp compost, so a shallow wide pot on a sunny windowsill is ideal.

Papaver somniferum and California Poppy

Poppy (Papaver somniferum) is a hardy annual from the western Mediterranean and southwest Asia, reaching around 1 metre with grey-green lobed leaves, broad papery flowers and a distinctive glaucous seed capsule. It resents transplanting, so scatter it where it is to grow and thin the seedlings rather than moving them. California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is a west-coast North American species with feathery blue-green foliage and silky orange cups, handles thin dry soil better than its Papaver relative, and self-seeds year after year. Between them they cover both ends of a border: one for the sculptural capsules, one for colour on ground nothing else likes.

Tobaccos

Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) is a South American native grown as a tall annual with broad sticky leaves to 2 metres and pink trumpet flowers; the seed is dust-fine, needs surface sowing under light at 22 to 25C, and the seedlings must be pricked out early. Aztec Tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) is shorter, coarser and faster, with yellow-green bell flowers, and carries a long ceremonial history in Mesoamerica and Amazonia. The Trippy Garden Pack gathers several of these quick-growing garden species into one bundle.

Sowing, Warmth and Waiting

Cactus seed goes on top of a gritty mix, gets a clear lid for humidity, bright indirect light and steady warmth, then a slow weaning off the lid once the seedlings are the size of a pinhead. Everything else here is more forgiving. Ephedra viridis goes no deeper than 5 mm in sandy, well-drained soil and usually sprouts in about two weeks, though germination is irregular, so don't bin a tray early. Papaver somniferum gets scattered on fertilised soil between September and April and is normally up within a week; overwatering it invites rot faster than anything else. California Poppy prefers a south-facing spot and poor ground. The tropical climbers and the Nicotiana species all want bottom heat to start, while the daggas and Ashwagandha are happy on any warm windowsill. First time out, we'd sow San Pedro and California Poppy on the same afternoon: one gives you a seedling in a fortnight, the other teaches you to leave a pot completely alone for a year.

Seed Freshness and Storage

Cactus seed loses vigour sitting around, so ours is freshly harvested batch by batch rather than warehouse-aged. Khat is in the same camp and is best sown fresh, while hard-coated seed such as Hawaiian Baby Woodrose and Celastrus paniculatus keeps better but still repays sowing sooner rather than later. If you are not sowing straight away, leave the seed in its packet somewhere cool, dark and dry, and keep it off the warm damp windowsill where the trays live. A labelled packet in a sealed tub at the back of a cupboard beats a loose envelope on the potting bench every time.