English: The shrub formerly known as Methysticodendron amesianum R.E. Schultes now correctly known as the Brugmansia cultivar ‘Culebra’. Containerised specimen currently housed in the Temperate House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Surrey, U.K.

The nomenclature concerning this shrub is somewhat confusing: distinguished ethnobotanist the late Professor Richard Evans Schultes initially considered this Brugmansia cultivar created by the Kamsa people of the Sibundoy Valley of Colombia sufficiently aberrant in form to be placed in a new Solanaceous genus of its own, namely Methysticodendron ( Greek compound meaning ‘tree that intoxicates’ ). The label of this specimen in Kew reads ‘Brugmansia aurea ’Culebra’ ‘ - whereas Kew’s own Plants of the World Online website states that the correct name for the plant is Brugmansia x candida (var. ‘Culebra’…) Brugmansia x candida is a hybrid between B. aurea and B. versicolor.

The name given to the plant by the Kamëntsá (aka Camsá and Kamsá) people of Colombia - who created this extremely distinctive cultivar - is ‘mutscuai (sometimes also spelt ‘mitskway’) borrachera’ . ‘Mutscuai’ means ‘snake’ in Kamsá (probably a description of the plants long, snake-like leaves) while ‘borrachera’ is simply Spanish for ‘intoxicant’ and, by extension, ‘ intoxicating plant’.