Damiana
Turnera diffusa
Damiana doesn't look much like a plant that would acquire a reputation for desire. Turnera diffusa is a small branching shrub with toothed green leaves and cheerful yellow flowers, growing through warm, relatively dry parts of the Americas. Once those leaves are crushed, though, they're unexpectedly aromatic. Herbal, woody and faintly sweet notes remain noticeable even after drying.
It's those leaves that have travelled furthest. Damiana has moved from regional herbal traditions into 19th-century tonics, modern herbalism and contemporary ritual practice, gathering a remarkably persistent association with sexuality along the way. The shrub is modest. Its reputation really isn't.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Malpighiales
Family: Passifloraceae
Genus: Turnera
Species: Turnera diffusa
Common Names: Damiana, Old Woman's Broom
Plant Form: Shrub
Distribution: Native to warm regions of the Americas, particularly Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, with its precise native range varying between botanical treatments
Small Leaves, Bright Flowers
Turnera diffusa grows as a much branched shrub suited to warm conditions, including dry scrub and open rocky environments. Its leaves are small, textured and toothed along the edges. Aromatic compounds held within the foliage become particularly noticeable when the leaves are rubbed or broken.
The flowers are harder to miss. Five yellow petals open from among the foliage, usually appearing individually rather than gathering into large clusters. Afterwards, small capsule fruits develop and eventually split to release their seeds.
None of this is especially obvious from a jar of dried damiana. By then the flowers and fruit are gone, the green has dulled and the leaves have curled in on themselves. The scent survives considerably better.
Which Damiana?
Common names have a habit of becoming untidy, and damiana is no exception.
Turnera diffusa is the species most strongly associated with commercial damiana, but the name has also been applied to related Turnera species. Turnera ulmifolia is one that can appear under similar naming despite being a separate species.
The distinction becomes much harder once the plant has been dried and cut. Flowers, growth habit and other useful identifying features have disappeared, leaving fragments of leaf that aren't nearly as cooperative.
Even the family name has moved. Older botanical references commonly place Turnera within Turneraceae. Modern classifications generally include the group within Passifloraceae, making damiana a somewhat unexpected relative of the passionflowers.
A Reputation Travels North
Damiana is particularly associated with Mexico and neighbouring regions, where the leaves have a history of use in traditional herbal preparations. Infusions are among the better known forms, although practices have varied between places and periods.
During the 19th century, damiana began attracting considerably more attention in the United States and Europe. It appeared in pharmacies, herbal preparations and commercial tonics, where claims surrounding the plant sometimes became rather ambitious.
One theme proved especially durable.
Damiana became widely promoted as an aphrodisiac and tonic associated with sexual vitality. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that reputation was firmly established in commercial advertising as well as herbal literature.
The association survived the tonics that helped popularise it.
Desire Gets the Better Publicist
Damiana's reputation as an aphrodisiac is now probably better known than the shrub itself. Historical and traditional accounts have connected it with desire, sexuality and reproductive wellbeing, while later commercial products often presented those associations much more confidently.
Modern research has investigated T. diffusa and some of its constituents, but that doesn't turn every historical claim into an established medical effect. The plant's reputation is interesting partly because of how successfully it has travelled between traditional practice, commercial herbalism and popular culture.
Contemporary folk and metaphysical practices have carried the theme further. Damiana may be included in work concerned with attraction, intimacy, confidence and desire, with divination and dream work appearing in some modern traditions as well.
Its symbolism isn't quite the familiar romance of the rose. Damiana tends to be considerably less coy about the matter.
What's Left in the Leaf
Dried damiana is usually a mixture of curled leaf pieces with occasional fine stems. Much of the fresh green disappears during drying, but the foliage can retain a distinctive aromatic character.
The leaves contain a complex mixture of naturally occurring compounds, including flavonoids and volatile aromatic constituents. Their proportions aren't necessarily identical from one plant or preparation to another. Growing conditions, harvest and processing all contribute to what eventually ends up in the dried material.
Historically, the leaves have been prepared in several ways. Water infusions and alcoholic preparations both have a record of use, and damiana has also appeared in smoking mixtures and liqueurs.
Those histories are worth separating from instructions for use. A plant having been prepared in a particular way doesn't establish that every traditional application was effective or that concentrated preparations are appropriate for everyone.
Better Left in Pieces
Damiana becomes fragile once thoroughly dried. The thin leaves crush easily, and repeated handling can turn recognisable pieces into increasingly fine material at the bottom of a container.
There's little reason to hurry that process along.
Keeping the botanical in larger pieces preserves more of its visible leaf structure and reduces unnecessary exposure of its aromatic compounds. An airtight container somewhere cool, dry and protected from direct sunlight helps slow the loss of scent and colour.
Some fading is inevitable. Open an older jar and the appearance may have become decidedly subdued while the fragrance is still waiting underneath.
In the Apotheca
Damiana doesn't compete particularly hard for attention from inside the jar. Beside whole flowers, bright spices and glossy resins, curled pieces of muted green leaf are easy to pass over.
Then the lid comes off.
The scent gives the dried plant considerably more presence, while its history does the rest. This fairly modest shrub has accumulated associations with desire through traditional herbal practice, commercial tonics and contemporary ritual use, each adding something to the reputation without being quite the same tradition.
There's an amusing mismatch between the two. Turnera diffusa produces little yellow flowers and unassuming leaves in dry scrub.
The leaves somehow ended up with a much more scandalous biography.
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