The Jilgre (Datura stramonium): A Hallucinogenic Plant in Morbihan (Brittany).

Territories in Question: Routes in Territories
By Patrick Prado
English

Surveys conducted in the French département of Morbihan on migrations from country to town in the sixties/eighties have shown the development of a secret sociability leading men to meet in certain places and on certain occasions over a hallucinogenic preparation made essentially of cider and datura, the French “stramoine” and the Breton jilgré. The field of this jilgré coincides with that of elements such as gender, language, profession, age, living place, type of drink, secret, and land. This secret plant—known under multiple denominations such as “datura,” stramoine,” plante à taupe,” plante à sorcier,” (datura, stramonium, devil's apple, Jamestown-weed, Jimson-weed, stinkweed, devil's trumpet, apple of Peru), and other plants such as “herbe d'or,” plante de lune,” plante à sommeil,” “endormeuse,” “savane,” oublie,” herbe d'égare,” yoten in Breton, endourmido in Provençal, burladora in Portuguese, etc.—may not yet have completely disappeared from French and European rural culture.

Keywords

  • Brittany
  • datura
  • hallucinogenic plant
  • secret
  • masculine/feminine
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