Cultivation of yerba mate
Cultivo de la yerba mate
- Date
- c. 1670 · confidence medium
- Place
- Jesuit reductions, San Ignacio, Misiones, Argentina
- Credited to
- Jesuits and Guaraní of the reductions
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The Guaraní and the Jesuits managed to germinate the seed of Ilex paraguariensis, which does not sprout easily, and plant yerba groves near the missions. This replaced gathering from distant forests.
The technique was lost after the expulsion of 1767 and rediscovered around 1900. Guaraní consumption of the leaf is much older.
What it led to
- the economy of the Jesuit reductions of Paraguay
- consumption of mate in the Southern Cone