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Ipomoea violacea is a species of morning glory that occurs throughout the tropics. The beauty of its flowers led horticulturalists to breed many new varieties, often with flowers showing striking patterns of bright colors, and bearing equally vivid names: Heavenly Blues, Flying Saucers, Pearly Gates and so on. These names proved eerily appropriate decades after they were invented, when the discovery of ergoline alkaloids similar to LSD in the seeds led to widespread experimentation and a massive surge in demand. In fact, the seeds had been used for centuries by many Mexican cultures, and were known to the Aztecs as tlitliltzin.
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