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tecpatli.

Headword: 
tecpatli.
Principal English Translation: 

an herb whose juice "gets rid of harshness in the chest and is a singular remedy for palpitations and for blood in the bowels; and from this same root is made a very good lime for catching silly little birds"

The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández, ed. Simon Varey, transl. Rafael Chabrán, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Simon Varey (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000), 139.

Orthographic Variants: 
tecpahtli
Attestations from sources in English: 

The Florentine Codex, Book 11, folio 133v, provides a description and an image of this plant, the tecpatli, which is also called tecpaolotl. This source says it is a medicine for broken bones. It can also serve as a sticky snare for catching birds.
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. 133v. Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2023. https://florentinecodex.getty.edu/en/book/11/folio/133v . Accessed 18 November 2025.

themes: 
Health, Sickness, Wellness, Medicine