One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon Rain Forest

Wade Davis follows the scientific career of his mentor, Richard Evans Schultes, the Harvard ethnobotanist who spent the 1940s mapping the headwaters of the Amazon. The narrative tracks Schultes as he identifies thousands of plant species, documenting the chemical makeup of rubber trees and the ritual use of sacred hallucinogens like peyote and ayahuasca. Davis weaves this history with his own 1970s expedition alongside fellow researcher Tim Plowman to study the botanical origins and cultural significance of the coca leaf across the Andean highlands and lowland jungles.

This volume serves students of ethnobotany and travelers interested in the intersection of indigenous knowledge and Western pharmacology. Readers gain a technical understanding of how traditional societies utilize biodiversity for medicine and ceremony without depleting natural resources. The text provides a detailed record of South American tribal geography and botanical classification, offering a perspective on how human culture and plant chemistry evolve together. It is a study of lost landscapes and the specific ways traditional healers perceive the living world.