Botanical atlas

Southern Zinowiewia

Zinowiewia australis

Zinowiewia australis does not carry a written history in the herbalist's cabinet. It belongs instead to the quieter story of the cloud forest canopy, one of about fourteen Zinowiewia species scattered from northeastern Mexico through Central America and the northern Andes down to Bolivia, with this particular species reaching an unusual southern outpost high in Venezuela's misted ridges and the isolated, tepui-fringed forests of Roraima in Brazil. Botanists have long found the whole Zinowiewia group difficult to sort out by leaf and flower alone, so this tree has spent more of its history being puzzled over under a hand lens than gathered for the table or the teapot. What value it holds is ecological rather than medicinal, as it takes its place quietly in the high forest alongside its more storied Celastraceae cousins.

Safety.

This tree has no history of food, medicine, or tea use, and its safety has never been studied. Several relatives in its family are known to be toxic to people or livestock, and Zinowiewia species are hard to tell apart, so it should not be gathered, eaten, or brewed.