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Barbasco-Masu
Clibadium strigillosum
-2.8, -77.29
Field Notes
Description:
This is a soft-bodied plant (not woody shrub) that grows up to 2 meters tall. The leaves are rough textured. They produce many bunches of berry-like flowers.
Habitat:
Grown in abundance in villages in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador for use in fishing.
Notes:
The top half of the plant is traditionally cut off including stems, leaves and blossoms. That is then put into a hole in the ground (up to a foot deep) and mashed with a club shaped pestle until completely mushed. It is then placed in woven baskets and taken to the river where it is submerged and swished until the leeching is done. They then start downstream to meet those coming up stream, picking up the stunned fish as they go. It is not as strong as the other kind of poison and quickly dissipates within a few hundred yards.
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