Santeria Palos & Herbs

I'm wondering if someone can help me find the scientific names of the following Santeria Palos and Herbs:

Espanta Policia
Palo Manga Sayas
Palo Ojancho
Palo Namo

They are found in Carlos Montegnegro's book "Santeria: Herbs, Oils and Incense" but no latin names are given. I've been searching for weeks trying to find this info. I bought another book "Guide to Afro-Cuban Herbalism", the first edition, and it doesn't list them either. It has Palo Manga Sayas, but no latin name.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Login or Signup to reply to this post.

These palos have no 'common' name these are Cuban colloquialisms, Espanta Policia means to frighten or scare police away, Manga Sayas (skirtsleeves) Ojancho (probably from 'Olancho' meaning division) as this palo is used in spells to cause conflict between people or to seperate lovers I can assume this is closer Namo (name) these are all native trees in Honduras and Cuba.

Really it is much easier to just buy the sticks from botanicas, as Carlos book only names a few and there are about 120 different palos that are used. Most of them will not be found natively in America so if your goal is to walk around and collect them there is no chance to find them all. Many are rare (bordering extinction) and can only be found in South American countries.

Hope that helps I saw your thread on Orishanet as well which got you the same answers maybe this will help you. As Ochun Kofe De said many of them are mispelled sometimes on purpose to force people to seek out an actual palero and not some wiccan basterdization where people self initiate (which is not possible)