This bushy medicinal plant has been used by Indigenous cultures of the Andes mountains in South America for millenia.
And for centuries, authorities have been trying to root out this potentially dangerous plant to nip the illicit drug it produces in the bud.
This is the Coca plant.
[skecthing sound effects & music] Hey!
I'm Tasha the Amazon and you're watching Floralogic Today we're talking about Erythroxylum coca, otherwise known as the coca plant.
This plant is famously the first word of the world's most popular soft drink and infamously the source of the illegal drug cocaine.
[male narrator from old film] "Cocaine is derived from the peruvian Coca plant.
It is strongly addictive." Coca is a shrub that grows to be 2 to 3 meters tall and prefers to grow in hot, damp climates.
It has small white flowers that mature into red berries.
While cultivated today in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, it is native to the Amazon and eastern slopes of the Andes mountains.
