Tod Swanson, 2011.  A girl’s mouth learns to produce the habitual scent of the piton flower.   Piton flowers were given to little girls to hold in their mouths. The idea was, that over the years of holding the flower in her mouth the girl’s saliva would acquire the habitual taste of the flower.   When she was older she would then impart this taste to the chicha she made by chewing the manioc.   The interesting assumption here is that the girl’s mouth would not just borrow the perfume of the flower momentarily but could actually learn to produce this scent through a sharing of bodily knowledge with the tree.  The Kichwa term used is yacharishca to become accustomed to.  The mouth becomes accustomed or habituated to the taste of the flower.

Plants that enhance desire