nanacatl.

iuhqui nanacatl tiquatinemi = it is as if you went about eating mushrooms (central Mexico, sixteenth century) Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 211. in aço maceoaloz in aço nanacaqualoia no iehoatl quimati in tlatoque in tli cuicatl meoaz = when there was to be dancing or there was the eating of mushrooms, the rulers also arranged which songs were to be sung Fray Bernardino de Sahagún, Primeros Memoriales, ed. Thelma D. Sullivan, et al. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), 198. nanacatl = hallucinogenic mushrooms David Tavárez, The Invisible War: Indigenous Devotions, Discipline, and Dissent in Colonial Mexico (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011), 43.

Book 11 of the Florentine Codex (ff. 132r–132v) includes a paragraph about nanacatl, in general, and several other paragraphs about specific varieties: In general, mushrooms grow in the fields and in the mountains. They are healthful if cooked, but they can be fatal; they can cause diarrhea. Regarding the varieties, the tzontecomananacatl is large and round, and it resembles a “severed head.” The cylindrical xelhuaznanacatl has the appearance of being divided or split. The chimalnanacatl is round and flat like a war shield or a tortilla (the Spanish text says “like a plate,” perhaps not wanting to recognize the obvious reference to the war shield). It is edible, but must be cooked. The menanacatl is like a round, white oyster. It can be used as a health remedy. It is savory when baked on the griddle. The zacananacatl is long, thin, and dark. Its head is round, flat, but also shaped like a spindle whorl. It grows in the grass after rain. It is edible and tasty when cooked. The cuauhnanacatl is a forest mushroom, as the name conveys. (The image also shows it growing out of an old decaying tree trunk.) It can be cooked in a pot or on a griddle.
Sahagún, Bernardino de, Antonio Valeriano, Alonso Vegerano, Martín Jacobita, Pedro de San Buenaventura, Diego de Grado, Bonifacio Maximiliano, Mateo Severino, et al. Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Florentine Codex), Ms. Mediceo Palatino 218–20, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MiBACT, 1577. Available at Digital Florentine Codex/Códice Florentino Digital, edited by Kim N. Richter, Alicia Maria Houtrouw, Kevin Terraciano, Jeanette Peterson, Diana Magaloni, and Lisa Sousa, bk. 11, fol. 132r. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/132r?spTexts=&nhTexts= . Accessed 18 November 2025.

Ca huel tehuatl molhuil, momacehual mochihuaz in mixitl, in tlapatl, in octli, in nanacatl; in tiquiz, in ticcuaz, inic tihuetziz, inic timotlapololtiz inic aocmo ticmatiz = Tu don, tu merecimiento se harán nube, tlápatl, pulque, hongo; los beberás, los comerás, y por consiguiente caerás, tú mismo te perderás aunque no lo sepas (centro de México, s. XVI) Josefina García Quintana, "Exhortación de un padre a su hijo; texto recogido por Andrés de Olmos," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 11 (1974), 176–177. in tzatzi, in oyohua, in yuhqui mixitl, tlapatl, in yuhqui octli, nanacatl in oquic, in oquiqua in aocmo quimati in tetl, in quahuitl = que da voces, que grita como si hubiera comido las hierbas estupefacientes, el hongo, como si hubiera bebido el pulque. Ya no siente la piedra, el palo Huehuehtlahtolli. Testimonios de la antigua palabra, ed. Librado Silva Galeana y un estudio introductorio por Miguel León-Portilla (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991), 54–55.