Botanical Set — Ground

White sage · Salvia apiana · Mexico. Burned across many cultures for thousands of years to purify a space, an object, or a person - a clean slate before something new. Its sharp, camphor-like smoke rises from the oils in the leaf.

Cedar · Cedrela odorata · Mexico. An ancient wood of doorways and passages, burned across many cultures to purify a space and mark a threshold or a boundary. A lasting aromatic wood, its smoke dry, woody, and balsamic.

Yerba santa · Eriodictyon californicum · Mexico. A resinous herb of the Californias, its glossy leaves coated in a natural balsam. Long burned across many cultures for its warm, deep smoke that settles low and lingers in a room.

Questions, answered

Are these the true species?
Yes - each botanical is named to species and origin: Salvia apiana, Cedrela odorata, and Eriodictyon californicum, all from Mexico. Much of what is sold in this category is not named at all.

What makes yerba santa different from the sages?
The balsam. Its glossy leaves carry a natural resin coating, so the smoke is warmer and deeper than a leaf smoke - it settles low and lingers rather than rising sharp.

Is the cedar a wood or a leaf?
A wood - a lasting aromatic timber whose smoke reads dry, woody, and balsamic, distinct from the two leaf botanicals in the set.

How long does the set last?
Each piece relights and reuses; with light use, each lasts several sessions. Store cool and dry between them.

1. Light the tip and let it flame, then blow it out and let it smoulder.
2. Move the smoke through the room.
3. Rest it in a fireproof dish; press the lit end to the dish to put it out.
4. Relight and reuse - with light use, each piece lasts several sessions.

Store cool and dry, away from heat and moisture. Always rest lit botanicals in a fireproof dish; press the lit end to the dish to extinguish.

• Set: Ground · three botanicals
• Contents: White sage · cedar · yerba santa
• Species: Salvia apiana · Cedrela odorata · Eriodictyon californicum
• Origins: Mexico
• Character: Sharp camphor · dry, woody, balsamic · warm and deep, settles low
• Use: Burned directly · no charcoal needed
• Reuse: Relights · several sessions per piece with light use
• Storage: Cool and dry · away from heat and moisture

Cedar is the wood of doorways across many cultures - burned at thresholds and passages to mark where one space ends and another begins, and prized as a timber precisely because it lasts. Its smoke carries that same steadiness: dry, woody, balsamic, unhurried.

Yerba santa keeps its Spanish name from the Californias, where the peoples of the region long burned its balsam-coated leaves for a smoke that sits low in a room rather than rising. Between the sage that opens the set and these two that settle it, the sequence runs downward by design - what firm ground comes to mean in the room is left to the person standing on it.