Two Plants of the Forest

Goal: After this lesson you can describe guayusa and the kola nut, where they grow, and what makes them forest plants. Subject: Geography | Run time: about 6 minutes

Quick recall

Last time we set up the episode. Two quick questions. One: what famous product came from the kola nut? Coca-Cola (Pendergrast, 2013). Two: what big question runs through this episode? Who owns traditional knowledge.

Why this matters

Both of today's plants grow in a rainforest, on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and neither one really works as a normal farm crop. They are forest plants, and that single fact shapes everything about them.

The idea

The first plant is guayusa, Ilex guayusa, a kind of holly tree from the Amazon (Lewis et al., 2003). It grows where the Andes mountains meet the Amazon basin, in the cloud-forest transition zone of Ecuador, Peru, and southern Colombia (Lewis et al., 2003). It lives under the forest canopy, in 50 to 70 percent shade, and people brew its leaves into a tea drunk before dawn. The second plant is the kola nut, from the trees Cola nitida and Cola acuminata, a seed from the lowland rainforest of West Africa (Pendergrast, 2013). Its range runs along the Guinea Coast, from Sierra Leone to Nigeria, near sea level. People chew the nut, which is bitter and mildly stimulating, and it sits at the center of West African ceremony and hospitality. Here is what they share. Both are what botanists call forest plants that need a multi-layer forest around them, for shade, humidity, and the web of soil fungi and companion species that keep them healthy (Lewis et al., 2003). Neither one is happy alone in a cleared field. That is the thread of this whole episode: these plants and the forest are one system.

Picture it

Picture two rainforests. One climbs a misty Andean slope in Ecuador, where a guayusa holly grows in the green shade. The other spreads flat and humid along the West African coast, where a kola tree drops its bitter seeds. Different continents, different plants, but the same rule: each one belongs to its forest.

Remember this

The fact to carry out: guayusa, an Amazon holly, and the kola nut, a West African rainforest seed, are both forest plants that depend on an intact, layered forest around them (Lewis et al., 2003; Pendergrast, 2013). That dependence is the key to the next lesson, where chemistry turns out to be a relationship.

Quick check

Quick check. Guayusa and kola grow on different continents, but what do they have in common? Both are forest plants that need a multi-layer forest around them to grow well (Lewis et al., 2003).

Key Takeaways

Guayusa (Ilex guayusa) is an Amazon holly from the cloud-forest zone of Ecuador, Peru, and southern Colombia, brewed as a pre-dawn tea (Lewis et al., 2003).
The kola nut (Cola nitida and Cola acuminata) is a West African rainforest seed, chewed and central to ceremony from Sierra Leone to Nigeria (Pendergrast, 2013).
Both are forest plants that need a multi-layer forest for shade, humidity, and soil life (Lewis et al., 2003).
Neither grows well alone in a cleared field, which shapes the whole episode.

Sources

Lewis, W. H., Kennelly, E. J., Bass, G. N., Wedner, H. J., Elvin-Lewis, M. P., & Fast, D. M. (2003). Ritualistic use of the holly Ilex guayusa by Amazonian Jivaro Indians. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 33(1-2), 25-30.
Pendergrast, M. (2013). For God, country, and Coca-Cola: The definitive history of the great American soft drink (3rd ed.). Basic Books.