By Liliana Usvat
Tenochtitlan was a garden city, and the Aztecs/Mexica, in Jacques
Soustelle’s words ‘had a positive passion for flowers’. This may hardly
be surprising given that 1 in 10 of all the 250,000 species of plants in
the world are found in Mexico - and half of these are ‘endemic’ to the
country (only to be found in Mexico).
The importance of flowers in ancient Mexico, representing as they did
life, death, gods, creation, humans, language, song and art, friendship,
stateliness, warrior captives, war itself, sky, earth... and an
important calendar sign. Flowers accompanied humans from conception and
birth to death and burial: clearly the flower was ‘one of the basic
elements in the art of pre-Hispanic language - like the quetzal feather
and the jade bead, it was the essence of something “precious”.
’The name for garden in general was xochitla, literally flower place; a variant being xoxochitla, a place of many flowers. A walled garden was xochitepanyo. The pleasure garden of the ruling class was designated as xochitecpancalli, the palace of flowers. The humble garden of the Indian was and is a xochichinancalli, flower place enclosed by a fence made of cane or reeds.’
Creating and developing a garden was a well respected pastime for the
Aztec/Mexica élite, highly organised with teams of professional
gardeners - who linked their expert knowledge of plants to the sacred
calendar - and made possible by the accumulated wealth of the Aztec
state. Writing of one of the many palaces that so astounded the Spanish
with its beauty, Susan Toby Evans explains some of the ‘nitty-gritty’
behind the scenes:
Labour crews performing tribute obligations built the place, dug the
ponds, plastered them, brought the stone and timbers and plants - all of
this magnificence was paid for by the Aztec empire. And the design...
reveals how Aztec [rulers] were kept in contact with affairs of state -
canals brought canoes directly to the palaces... just as limousines and
helicopters today ferry executive officers of business and government
from one important meeting to another.
So highly
developed and regulated was the art of gardening that strict laws
preventing commoners from growing (or picking) certain flowers helped
the nobility to display their rank and privileges in a direct (and
colourful) way...
Whilst the Spanish constantly only used one word - ‘rose’ - to describe
any large, colourful flower, Mexica horticulturalists had already
developed an entire scientific system for plant names, combining terms
that referred to a plant’s key characteristics (appearance, colour,
habitat, medicinal properties etc.) Phil Clark lists the following
examples:-
• Aquatic - at(l)
• Medicinal - patli
• Herb - xihuitl
• Edible quilitl
• Shrub quatzin
• Tree quahuitl
• Spiny huiztli
• Flower-bearing xochitl
• Fruit-bearing:
- acid fruits xocotl
- sweet, fleshy fruits zapotla
It’s a sad fact today that not a single Aztec garden plan remains, and
we’re left, ironically, with the - in some cases quite detailed -
descriptions written by the Spanish conquerors before they ravaged what
must have been a truly beautiful landscape.
Moctezuma II kept three pleasure gardens - at his Tenochtitlan palace,
as part of the cypress park and hanging gardens at Chapultepec, and at
Iztapalapa. In his second letter to Charles V, in 1520, Cortés described
the palace garden of Cuitlahuac (Moctezuma’s brother) at Iztapalapa in
glowing terms:-
There are... very refreshing gardens with many trees and sweet-scented
flowers, bathing places of fresh water, well constructed and having
steps leading down to the bottom. [There was also] a large orchard near
the house overlooked by a high terrace with many beautiful corridors and
rooms. Within the orchard is a great square pool of fresh water, very
well constructed, with sides of handsome masonry, around which runs a
walk with a well-laid pavement of tiles, so wide that four persons can
walk abreast on it, and 400 paces square, making in all 1,600 paces. On
the other side of this promenade toward the wall of the garden are
hedges of lattice work made of cane, behind which are all sorts of
plantations of trees and aromatic herbs. The pool contains many fish and
different kinds of waterfowl.
The hilltop gardens of the poet-king Netzahualcóyotl of Texcoco at
Tetzcotzinco proved legendary, and were later to inspire the
not-to-be-outdone Mexica ruler Moctezuma I to create the ‘botanical’
gardens at Huaxtepec. The native chronicler Ixtlilxochitl (himself
descended from Netzahualcóyotl) gave a rich description
.
These parks and gardens were adorned with rich and sumptuously ornamented alcazars
(summerhouses) with their fountains, their irrigation channels, their
canals, their lakes and their bathing-places and wonderful mazes, where
he had had a great variety of flowers planted and trees of all kinds,
foreign and brought from distant parts... and the water intended for the
fountains, pools and channels for watering the flowers and trees in
this park came from its spring: to bring it, it had been necessary to
build strong, high, cemented walls of unbelievable size, going from one
mountain to the other with an aqueduct on top which came out at the
highest part of the park.
Whenever the ruler claimed special (rare) plants in tribute, they were
brought to the Aztec capital ‘in great quantities, with the earth still
about the roots, wrapped in fine cloth’ - along with specialists in
their upkeep - and were then ‘taken to Huaxtepec and planted around the
springs’, according to the Spanish chronicler Diego Durán. The plantings
were accompanied by ritual ceremonies that included bloodletting and
the sacrifice of large numbers of quail to Xochiquetzal, the Mexica
flower deity
By the time the Spanish came on the scene, the gardens had spread over 7
miles in circumference and held some 2,000 species of herbs, shrubs and
trees. Cortés claimed these were the ‘finest, pleasantest and largest’
gardens he had ever seen:-
A very pretty rivulet [stream] with high banks ran through it from one
end to the other. For the distance of two shots from a crossbow there
were arbors [shady spots] and refreshing gardens and an infinite number
of different kinds of fruit trees; many herbs and sweet-scented flowers.
It certainly filled one with admiration to see the grandeur and
exquisite beauty of this entire orchard.
All this was more than just an exotic display of conspicuous
consumption: the medicinal plants grown at Huaxtepec were key to a huge
trade in what today we might call ‘health products’ (follow the ‘Four
Hundred Flowers’ link below to our Aztec Health section) - an Aztec
industry whose importance was recognised by the Spanish: Huaxtepec was
visited by the great natural historian Francisco Hernández, sent by the
Spanish king to document the resources and to obtain valuable plants.
Several great historians, including William Prescott and Francisco del
Paso y Troncoso, have claimed that the Aztecs developed the world’s
first botanical gardens or ‘places designed to display an encyclopedic
array of plants’ (Toby Evans). It remains highly likely that Europe’s
earliest botanical gardens, created in Italy in the 1540s, were inspired
by the great Mexica pleasure gardens that blew the Spanish away with
their beauty...
The Aztecs had developed a highly sophisticated system of medicine, in
which these medicinal and useful herbs played a vital part (Burns and
Arroo 2005). We know this because, in the wake of the Conquistadors,
scholars travelled to the Americas to record the knowledge of the
indigenous people in the form of codices and other documents. We can
also see traces of traditional uses of herbs in the contemporary use of
medicinal plants by Mexican communities.
The codices - Medicinal Uses of Plants
Of the surviving post-Conquest
documents, one of the most attractive is probably the Libellus de
Medicinalibus Indorum Herbis – also known variously as the Aztec Herbal,
the Badianus Manuscript, or the Codex Barberini (de la Cruz 2000). It
was written in 1552 by a young Aztec doctor, Martin de la Cruz “taught
by no formal reasonings, but educated by experiments only”, and
describes a number of ailments suffered by the Aztec people, together
with their recommended treatments – some of which seem a little bizarre,
it must be said.
A more detailed study is found in Friar Sahagún’s 16th Century General
History of the Things of New Spain(de Sahagun 1963). This treatise of
Aztec daily life – known as the Florentine Codex – contains a book
titled “Earthly Things”, of which a large section is devoted to the
medicinal herbs. Sahagúns’ text is considered to present a more
authentic picture of genuine Aztec medicine than de la Cruz’ Aztec
Herbal, because the latter had perhaps been “contaminated” by Spanish
influences. We also have Hernandez’ Rerum Medicarum Novae Hispaniae
Thesaurus, covering over a thousand medicinal plants, and described in
detail in Professor Ortiz de Montallano’s introduction to this section.
Together, these documents describe a number of plants that are well
known to us today as foodstuffs – vanilla, tomato, and guava, for
example – and others that we know as ornamental flowers, such as types
of magnolia and frangipani. The books give us botanical descriptions of
the plants, details of how the Aztecs prepared them, and tell us which
ailments were treated with them.
Hot and cold
Like Europeans of
the time, Aztecs believed that plants were “hot” or “cold”, and could be
used to correct excess heat or cold in the body. Excess cold in the
body was concomitant with the retention of water, and cold/watery
illnesses like gout ( coacihuiztli,
which literally translates as “the stiffening of the serpent”) would be
remedied with the application of a hot herb.
(
Yauhtli)
Interestingly, many of the
hot herbs, such as yauhtli (Tagetes lucida), act as diuretics, removing excess water from the body. Yauhtli was frequently used together with the hot herb iztauhyatl (Artemisia mexicana)
(Artemisia mexicana)
, the leaves of which were ground in water and drunk. Conversely the root of the Tlalmizquitl (Prosopis juliflora, the mesquite tree)
( Prosopis juliflora)
is “required by him whose body is very hot...it is the proper drink to cool his body”.
Sweet-smelling flowers – the Aztec word for flower is ‘xochitl’ - were
considered to be medicinal. De la Cruz describes an attractive remedy
for the relief of fatigue, requiring eloxochitl (Magnolia dealbata),
Magnolia dealbata
izquixochitl (Bourreria humilis)
, cacaloxochitl (Plumeria mexicana,
(Plumeria mexicana),
a frangipani described as being of “exceeding beauty”) and mecaxochitl(Vanilla
planifolia).
mecaxochitl(Vanilla
planifolia)
Together with a few other “sweet summer flowers”, a
fragrant water is made which will give “gladiatorial strength to the
body” of the patient who bathes in it.
Given as treatments for digestive troubles are the cotztomatl (Physalis costomatl - incidentally the Aztec word “tomatl” is the root of our “tomato”)
cotztomatl (Physalis costomatl)
; mecaxochitl, “for internal ailments”; memeya (a Euphorbia),
Euphorbia
good for “one whose abdomen goes resounding”; and the cococxiuitl (Bocconia
frutescens),
cococxiuitl (Bocconia
frutescens)
used for constipation. Apparently the latter cannot be
eaten or drunk, but must be inserted in, shall we say, the other end of
the alimentary canal. Sahagún’s informant warned, “It burns like
chilli”. Fortunately he added that “not much is required”, for which the
patient must have been grateful.
For the ever-present gout the Aztec herbalist applied picietl (Nicotiana rustica, a wild tobacco)
– also good for relieving tiredness.
Respiratory illnesses don’t appear all that frequently in the Aztec literature, but recommended for a chesty cough is the Tlaquequetzal (Achillea millefolium, or yarrow).
Tlaquequetzal (Achillea millefolium, or yarrow)
The
activities of the Aztec warriors kept the healers busy. For “him who is
pierced by an arrow”, the leaves and bark of the waxy chapolxiuitl (Pedilanthus pavonis)
Pedilanthus pavonis
are applied to the wound, as it a preparation of zayolitzcan (Buddleia
americana).
Buddleja americana
The combination of agave sap and salt is a very regular
occurrence in wound remedies - agave sap, when mixed with salt, forms a
solution that kills bacteria by dehydrating them.
Need a tonic? Try this recipe. Take the sap of the
yellow-leafed maguey (Agave atrovirens), and cook it together with some
yellow chilli and tomato juice, and ten gourd seeds. Take after eating.
After that you may need some Aztec toothpaste. Take the root of the tlatlauhcapatli (Geranium
carolinianum),
(Geranium
carolinianum)
together with some salt and chilli, and make a paste.
Rub the paste into your teeth, if you dare.
And for a mouthwash, try an
infusion of iztauhyatl (Artemisia mexicana).
Salvia lavandulifolia
Pine
(Scots pine)
81.9% for black pine) compared with open areas (21.5% for Scots pine, 56.8% for black pine
black pine
