Clones of Salvia divinorum

CLONES of Salvia Divinorum

Because salvia divinorum is mainly propagated (grown from clones and clippings), seeds are never produced and that makes it difficult to find them for sale and clones are the optimal choice. Several strains, or clones they are also called, can be found to be able to grow salvia at home. Salvia divinorum seed raised plants are extremely valuable because of their genetic uniqueness and clones are made from them in order to produce more plants of the same strain. Botanists who have been studying salvia divinorum’s reproduction process in nature have yet to discover any seeds on the plant.

                Vegetatively Propagated Clones collected from the Sierra Mazateca:

Wasson/Hofmann (Collected by Wasson and Hofmann)
Cerro Quemado (Collected by L.J. Valdés III)
Palatable (Collected by Bret Blosser)
Bret Blosser #2 (Collected by Bret Blosser)
Catalina (KH96 – Collected by Kathleen Harrison July 1996)
Delicious (DS9901 – Collected by Daniel Siebert February 11, 1999)
Julieta (DS9902 – Collected by Daniel Siebert February 14, 1999)

                Distinctive Clones

Luna– (syn. DS9401L)-Since seed bearing is almost extinct, this was found growing in a patch of Wasson/Hoffman plants in 1994 by Daniel Siebert in Hawaii. therefore, it is most likely that this is actually a sport, possibly some type of polyploid. The leaf morphology is distinctive. The margin is more deeply serrated and the leaf is more roundish than ovate.

Appaloosa-  a variegated clone that was discovered by “Sage Student” in 1999. It originated as a sport on an otherwise normal specimen in his collection. The clonal identity of the plant that produced it is unknown because it was purchased from a source that did not identify it (most likely it was the Wasson/Hofmann clone). The cause of the variegation has not been positively identified. It is probably a chimera (an individual containing genetically different tissues) that resulted from a somatic mutation. It does not appear to be caused by a pathological condition. The leaves are marked with patchy white or pale-green areas and the stems have white striping. The amount of variegation is quite variable: some leaves are heavily variegated, while others appear completely normal. Growth of the pigment-free cells is stunted, causing leaf and stem deformations. “Sage Student” describes how this clone was nearly destroyed soon after it was discovered: “The original plant was nearly destroyed, because when I first noticed it I thought it was diseased. Fearing it would infect my healthy Salvia plants, I hurled it into the woods to die far away from my healthy Salvias. But I then had second thoughts about what I had done, and realized it might not be sick after all but could be a rare mutant worth saving. I had to crawl on hands and knees through poison ivy to retrieve it!”

Paradox– One of the few seed-raised plants mentioned above. It is very unique plant, with mottled appearance to its leaves.

Julieta- A strong salvia divinorum strain collected by Daniel Siebert from a Mazatec shaman in Huautla de Jimenez (in the Sierra Mazateca, Mexico) in 1999.

La Fuerza (The Force) strain-
A strain of salvia divinorum which was collected by Kathleen Harrison. An ethnobotanist and former wife of Terence McKenna, in January, 2001.

Owens strain-  A potent salvia divinorum strain collected by Jack Owens on Cerro Rabon (in the Sierra Mazateca, Mexico) in June 2003. Jack Owens was a major supplier of dried Salvia divinorum leaves to the US from Mexico. He died at the beginning of September 2004 and this strain is therefore named in his honor.

Resilience strain-
A cutting of salvia divinorum grown from a seed-grown strain raised by Daniel Siebert in 2002. Salvia divinorum derived from seed grown plants is almost impossible to find and should contain valuable genetics.

Salvia divinorum “Blosser” or “Palatable“strain-
A clone of salvia divinorum which was collected by anthropologist Bret Blosser in December 1991 and sold by the now defunct …Of the Jungle Ethnobotanical company.

Wasson & Hofmann and\or Bunnell strain-
The original clones brought back to the United States and distributed around the world. The name Wasson and Hofmann was first applied to the strain in 1992 by the now-defunct ethnobotanical company (Of the Jungle). They began listing it in their catalog as the ‘Wasson and Hofmann’ strain to differentiate it from another strain they introduced the same year, “Blosser” or “Palatable”strain. This clone was originally collected by Sterling Bunnell in 1962, not by Wasson or Hofmann as some believe because of the name.