Guarijio Makuchi

Guarijio Makuchi is a Nicotiana rustica grown by the Guarijio (Warihio) people of northwest Mexico, held in the Native Seeds/SEARCH seed bank as accession N002. The seed was collected in Chihuahua in 1990 at roughly 4,250 feet, and 'makuchi' is the regional Spanish name for the strong native tobaccos of that area. NS/S records it as a traditional smoking leaf with a robust flavour, smoked especially at Pascola ceremonies, the deer-dance observances of the greater Sonora and Chihuahua region. The one horticultural observation NS/S publishes is that plants stay small when grown down in the low desert, a mid-elevation variety showing its limits in Tucson heat. It is no longer a variety a general gardener can buy: NS/S has pulled its tobacco accessions from retail because tobacco grown for specific community ceremonies is not to be sold or used commercially, and now releases them only through the Native American Seed Share.