The Aztec people flourished in the area of southern Mexico between the 15th and 16th centuries and established a vast empire ruled from their capital Tenochtitlan which was founded on an island in Lake Texcoco. They developed a sophisticated understanding of botany that was deeply integrated into their religious practices and cosmology, and formed the core component of their medicine. To support their large urban population, they engineered extensive agricultural systems called Chinampa, allowed year-round cultivation of staple crops.
The nobility and elite rulers maintained specialized gardens for ornamental, medicinal, and exotic plants which were imported from across the empire. First-hand descriptions of these gardens were written by Spanish chroniclers who marvelled at the variety of trees and plants, and the care and skill with which the gardens were laid out and maintained. Further details of Aztec agricultural practices and the role and importance of plants in medicine and religion were provided in manuscripts called Codices.
The Spanish Conquest of 1521 initiated a transfer process referred to as the Columbian Exchange, in which plants such as maize, tomatoes, and tobacco were transported to Europe. This exchange had a profound impact on global agriculture, cuisine and medicine. Ornamental trees and flowers were also transported to Europe and found pride of place in botanical gardens and the gardens of wealthy aristocrats.
Ongoing archaeology, from pollen studies to site excavations, continues to uncover the scale and brilliance of these pre-Columbian systems, inspiring sustainable farming practices today.
Discover the sacred cosmology, visionary mushrooms, hot-and-cold healing herbs, elite floral paradises, and how Aztec botany still echoes in our world—read on to explore the full story.
a portrait of Tenochtitlan, Thomas Kole
Aztec Botany
Plants played a fundamental and active role in Aztec cosmology and religious tradition and were considered sacred elements of the natural world, intimately connected to the gods, the structure of the cosmos, and the maintenance of human health. They were used in rituals, healing practices, divine offerings, and spiritual experiences.
Many plant species held sacred status in Aztec culture, seen as divine gifts with supernatural powers tied to specific deities and essential for sustaining life. Among them, maize, the dietary staple, was especially revered. In Mesoamerican mythology, the gods created humans from maize dough, making it a profound symbol of life and central to rituals celebrating fertility, harvest, and renewal.
Maize was closely linked to Chicomecōātl (often called the goddess of sustenance and abundance), who embodied nourishment and plentiful crops. Ceremonies honouring her occurred throughout the agricultural calendar, especially during planting and harvest seasons (notably in festivals like Huey Tozoztli). Temples received offerings of maize ears, often accompanied by flowers and copal incense, to secure bountiful yields and divine favour.
Copal is a resin obtained from certain tropical trees of the Bursera family and was widely used in ceremonies dedicated to gods such as Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli and was frequently burned in temples, household shrines, and during public rituals. The fragrant smoke was believed to carry prayers and offerings upward to the divine realm.
Cacao also had great religious significance and was closely linked to the ‘feathered serpent’ deity Quetzalcoatl. In Aztec tradition, Quetzalcoatl, who was associated with wisdom, culture, and creation, stole cacao from the divine realm and gave it to humans. This established the plant as a sacred gift from the gods and it was highly valued in Aztec society where it was used in ritual drinks, offerings to the gods, and elite ceremonies, and cacao beans were even used as a form of currency. Its rarity and value reinforced its status as a sacred substance connected to elite and priestly rituals.
Some plants held sacred status because they could alter consciousness and produce visionary experiences and were therefore used by priests and diviners to communicate with the supernatural world. Through these altered states, Aztec priests and healers believed they could diagnose illnesses, predict future events, or locate lost objects
Psychoactive mushrooms called ‘teonanácatl’ in Nahuatl (meaning ‘god’s flesh’) were consumed during religious festivals, divination, prophecy, and healing rites to receive guidance from deities. Its procurement was costly as it could be found only in specific regions and its use was therefore limited to the elite class who ingested it social gatherings and celebrations, sometimes mixed with honey, or chocolate. Another important visionary plant was Ololiuhqui, the seeds of a species of morning glory containing hallucinogenic compounds. The seeds were often ground and mixed with water to create a ritual drink used in divination ceremonies. Tobacco also had spiritual importance in Aztec ritual life. A particularly strong variety, Nicotiana rustica, was used in ceremonies and healing practices. It could be smoked, burned, or applied in medicinal preparations, and it was believed to possess protective and purifying powers.
Flowers & Horticulture
Flowers occupied a central place in Aztec culture, religion, and aesthetics. Beyond their visual beauty, flowers were valued for their symbolic, ritual, and political meanings. In Aztec society they represented divine truth, fertility, artistic expression, and elite status. Their cultivation and display, particularly in the royal gardens of rulers such as Moctezuma II, demonstrate the deep importance of botany within Aztec religious and social life.
Flowers were strongly connected to the spiritual worldview of the Aztecs and certain deities were closely associated with flowers, for example Xochipilli, often called the “Prince of Flowers,” who was the god of beauty, pleasure, music, dance, and artistic creativity. Floral garlands were worn by priests, dancers, and nobles during festivals, and they were used in elite banquets and diplomatic events. Guests were often presented with fragrant blossoms as tokens of respect and hospitality. In these contexts, flowers symbolized refinement and high status.
Specific species were commonly used in ceremonies such as Tagetes erecta (Mexican Marigold), a bright orange marigold whose strong fragrance made it suitable for ritual decoration and offerings. In later traditions in Mexico, it became associated with the commemoration of the dead.
- Dahlias are native to Mexico and were cultivated by the Aztecs in gardens and ceremonial spaces. It was known to the Aztecs as acocoxóchitl, meaning “water-tube flower,” referring to its hollow stems.
- Magnolia (Magnolia mexicana), called Yolloxochitl, cultivated in elite gardens and was prized for its beauty and medicinal value.
- Tuberose (Agave amica), called omixochitl in Nahuatl was prized for its strong scent and used for perfumes and aromatic offerings.
- Flor de Manita (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon) was called macpalxóchitl in Nahuatl. This unusual tree produces flowers shaped like a human hand, and held ceremonial significance and medicinal value.
Access to certain flowers and gardens were restricted to upper levels of society. Elite households cultivated ornamental plants in private courtyards and palace gardens, where flowers could be enjoyed for their fragrance and beauty. These gardens functioned as spaces for social gatherings, poetry recitals, and performances. Since only the wealthy could afford the labour and resources to maintain large ornamental gardens, they became symbols of wealth and power.
Royal gardens served as spaces where political authority and cultural refinement were displayed simultaneously. The ruler’s ability to cultivate exotic plants from across the empire symbolized his control over distant lands and resources.
One of the most famous examples of elite botanical landscapes was the garden complex maintained by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma II near Chapultepec, not far from the capital city of Tenochtitlan. First-hand accounts by Spanish conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo noted the remarkable variety of flowering plants, trees, and medicinal herbs collected from across the Aztec Empire:
“We entered the great gardens and orchards belonging to Montezuma, where there were many kinds of trees and fragrant flowers. There were also ponds and tanks of fresh water, and everything was kept very clean and in perfect order. In these gardens were many walks and pleasant places to rest, and there were men whose duty it was to take care of the trees and flowers and to keep the gardens properly tended. The variety of plants was so great that some had been brought from distant provinces, and they were planted where they would grow best, so that the place seemed to us like a delightful paradise”
These elite gardens may also have functioned as early botanical collections. Plants with medicinal, ritual, or culinary uses were cultivated alongside ornamental species, suggesting that the gardens were spaces of both scientific curiosity and aesthetic enjoyment. Flowers also played an important role in Aztec intellectual and artistic traditions and poets frequently used floral imagery to express philosophical ideas and metaphors. Courtly gatherings sometimes took place in gardens where nobles listened to poetry and music among blooming flowers.
a portrait of Tenochtitlan, Thomas Kole
Hot and Cold plants
In the Aztec medicinal system human health was believed to be maintained through an equilibrium of opposing forces: Heat was associated with energy, vitality, and the sun, while cold was associated with calmness, moisture, and darkness. Illness would thus result from an imbalance of heat or cold. Through this understanding plants were classified by their perceived ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ properties.
‘Hot’ plants were thought to stimulate and warm the body and were used to treat conditions such as fatigue, digestive weakness, or chills. Spicy plants such as chili peppers, and plants with energising effects including tobacco, and vanilla and cacao were considered hot in nature.
‘Cold’ plants on the other hand had cooling and calming properties and were used to treat fevers, inflammation, and other conditions believed to be associated with excess heat. Example of ‘cold’ plants are chia, amaranth, marigold, agave and passionflower, and herbs and leafy plants which could be made into infusions, poultices and washes.
Chinampas ‘Floating Gardens’
Chinampas were a highly productive agricultural system developed to allow crops to be grown in shallow lakes and wetlands. Often described as ‘floating gardens’ they formed a network of artificial islands surrounded by water channels that turned otherwise unusable areas into fertile fields.
In the early 16th century, the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan was one of the most populous in the world with an estimated population of between 200,000 to 300,000 residents. The city was constructed on an island on Lake Texcoco and relied on Chinampa agriculture to provide a steady supply of food for the city’s inhabitants.
Construction involved staking rectangular plots in shallow water, weaving reed or branch fences, then layering mud, lake sediment, decaying vegetation, and soil to raise the surface above water level. ‘Ahuejote’ Willows were often planted along the edges to stabilise the soil and prevent erosion. The plots were easily accessible by canoe for irrigation and maintenance, and the produce could be readily transported by canal to the city markets.
Chinampas were among the most productive agricultural systems in the pre-modern world. The highly fertile soil, constantly enriched by nutrient-rich lake sediment, allowed for year-round cultivation, yielding 2-3 harvests annually of staples like maize, beans, squash, chilies, tomatoes, and amaranth. The surrounding water also helped regulate temperature and moisture, reducing the risk of drought or frost.
Modern farmers in regions such as Xochimilco continue to maintain chinampa agriculture, providing valuable insights into historical farming techniques. Observations of these living systems help archaeologists interpret ancient agricultural features and evaluate the productivity of chinampa fields.
Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange saw the large-scale transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, and cultural practices between the Americas and the Old World. Europeans had quickly realised the agricultural potential of American crops and began transporting seeds and plants across the Atlantic. Crops including maize, potato, tomato, and chili, proved highly adaptable and were adopted as a staple part of the diet, such as tomatoes in Mediterranean cuisine and chili peppers in Asia. Cacao-derived chocolate emerged as a luxury beverage in Europe, spawning exclusive chocolate houses in cities like London
The Columbian Exchange also introduced numerous Old-World species such as wheat, barley, sugarcane and citrus fruits to the Americas, particularly through plantation colonies. The introduction of domesticated animals such as horses, cattle, pigs and sheep, fundamentally transformed the landscape and indigenous way of life.
Amid the European scientific renaissance botany flourished and many universities and royal courts founded botanical gardens (such as the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, and University of Padua, Italy) to study and display collections of plants from around the world. Reports by Spanish chroniclers and published accounts of the Americas triggered European curiosity and resulted in the collection and transportation of many native ornamental flowers, either as seeds or as living plants.
European naturalists were fascinated by the diversity of American flora and sought to classify these plants within emerging scientific systems of taxonomy. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus later incorporated many American species into his system of binomial nomenclature in the eighteenth century, helping to integrate American flora into the global framework of botanical science.
Many of the ornamental plants introduced from Mexico attracted immediate attention because of their bright colours and unusual shapes. Their introduction influenced European garden design and many aristocratic estates incorporated exotic species as symbols of prestige as the cultivation of foreign plants demonstrated both wealth and access to global trade networks.
Dahlias for example were introduced to Europe in the late 18th century and quickly gained popularity because of their large and vivid blossoms. By the 19th century horticulturalists had developed hundreds of hybrid varieties, and dahlias became a common feature of ornamental gardens throughout Europe. Marigolds were also widely cultivated in gardens and were appreciated for both their appearance and their ability to repel certain insects.
The Evidence
Much of our knowledge of Aztec society, agriculture and horticulture is derived from pictorial manuscripts known as codices, produced by Indigenous scribes before and after the Spanish conquest of central Mexico.
- The Florentine Codex was compiled in the 16th century under the supervision of the Franciscan scholar Bernardino de Sahagún. This extensive work documented many aspects of Aztec life, including religion, trade, medicine, and agricultural practices. It also contained detailed descriptions and illustrations of plants used in medicine and ritual practice and much of the information it contains was derived from indigenous informants.
- The Codex Mendoza, (c 1541), contains detailed illustrations of tribute payments collected by the Aztec Empire from conquered provinces. Many of these tribute items were agricultural products such as maize, cacao, cotton, and chili peppers. These illustrations provide valuable evidence of the economic importance of agricultural production within the imperial system.
- The Codex Borgia offers insight into the religious worldview that shaped agricultural life. Although primarily a ritual and divinatory manuscript, it depicts deities associated with fertility, rain, and crops, and illustrates the connection between agriculture and religion in Aztec society, where successful harvests were believed to depend on maintaining harmony with divine forces.
Codices also provide visual evidence of agricultural technologies including farmers cultivating fields, planting crops, and transporting goods to markets. Some manuscripts depict the Chinampa system and its raised agricultural plots and irrigation canals.
Archaeological research has played a crucial role in reconstructing the agricultural systems of the Aztec civilization, completing the documentary record with direct physical evidence of how these systems functioned in practice.
Excavations in the earlier 20th century focused on monumental architecture of the urban centre of Tenochtitlan, however later research began to examine the surrounding landscape, surveying the network of canals, raised fields and agricultural terraces that supported the capital.
Archaeological soil analysis and archaeobotany (analysis of preserved seeds, pollen and plant fragments) have proven to be invaluable research tools such as by confirming the soil composition and fertility of the Chinampas and identifying the crops and other plants which were cultivated. Sediment cores taken from lakebeds in the Basin of Mexico have revealed changes in vegetation and agricultural activity over time. Layers containing pollen from cultivated plants indicate periods of intensive farming, while shifts in sediment composition show how canals and chinampas altered the natural environment.
Archaeologists have also investigated the remains of gardens maintained by Aztec rulers and nobles and excavations have uncovered terraces, water channels, and irrigation systems that would have supported ornamental gardens and orchards. These features suggest that elite gardens were carefully designed environments combining aesthetic, recreational, and practical functions and likely contained a mixture of flowering plants, fruit trees, and medicinal herbs.
Conclusion
The botanical knowledge of the Aztecs represents one of the most sophisticated pre-modern systems of plant use, blending spiritual reverence, practical agriculture, advanced medicine, and aesthetic refinement. Through innovations like Chinampas and extensive elite gardens, they sustained one of the world’s largest cities while maintaining profound cosmological connections to the natural world. The Spanish Conquest and Columbian Exchange disseminated this legacy globally, transforming cuisines, medicines, and gardens from Europe to Asia with staples like maize, tomatoes, cacao, and ornamentals such as dahlias and marigolds. Today, surviving practices in places like Xochimilco, alongside ongoing archaeological and ethnohistorical research, continue to reveal the ingenuity of Aztec botany and inspire sustainable approaches to agriculture and environmental harmony in the modern era. This enduring influence underscores how Indigenous knowledge shaped, and continues to shape, the global botanical landscape.
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