What it looks like when Datura grows in a non-arid climate...

[Mikent]

Two different angles on the same clump. This started out as three Datura growing in a pot. For the first time in the 30ish years I've been growing Datura (I have seeds from four species/hybrids, but usually default to growing this one), some unprotected seeds survived the Winter and four or five sprouted the next Spring. This year's clump is made up of fifteen-ish plants growing all intertwined with each other (yep, seeds from the five last year survived the winter (again)).

Neighbors (I live on a private drive) stop all the time to ask what kind of lily it is (heh-heh) and whether they can get some seeds from it.

Side note: if you look at img 0252, find the triangle of blooms on the right side - a bit below the upper bloom, you can see a few hints of red. Those are from an Autumn Sage currently growing in the pot where the original three Datura started out. I don't know if the hummingbirds are finding their way to the sage blossoms or not since they're nearly completely overgrown by the Datura - but the sage doesn't seem to mind that at all.

[CG100]

The largest species are small trees.
I have always liked the genus, but most especially the scented ones. I have grown metalloides a couple of times but suspect that the second batch of seeds were hybrids as they had rather little scent. The first plants easily scented a whole greenhouse over-night.

That is quite the show though!!!

[Too Many Plants!]

Two different angles on the same clump. This started out as three Datura growing in a pot. For the first time in the 30ish years I've been growing Datura (I have seeds from four species/hybrids, but usually default to growing this one), some unprotected seeds survived the Winter and four or five sprouted the next Spring. This year's clump is made up of fifteen-ish plants growing all intertwined with each other (yep, seeds from the five last year survived the winter (again)).

Neighbors (I live on a private drive) stop all the time to ask what kind of lily it is (heh-heh) and whether they can get some seeds from it.

Side note: if you look at img 0252, find the triangle of blooms on the right side - a bit below the upper bloom, you can see a few hints of red. Those are from an Autumn Sage currently growing in the pot where the original three Datura started out. I don't know if the hummingbirds are finding their way to the sage blossoms or not since they're nearly completely overgrown by the Datura - but the sage doesn't seem to mind that at all.

Is this the plant or flowers that are deadly to consume? It looks a lot like what grows wild on my property that's said to be deadly. In Flower right now while hot and dry.

[Mikent]

Is this the plant or flowers that are deadly to consume? It looks a lot like what grows wild on my property that's said to be deadly. In Flower right now while hot and dry.

Any part of the plant will do it. There are several cardioactive drugs obtained from datura, as well as a few that are hallucinogens.

Some sources will quote all kinds of deadly threats from merely growing any datura. I've never had any issues. I do always make sure that I wash my hands as soon as I get inside. Also, do not let sap from leaves (or sometimes from collecting the spent flowers (which otherwise can become really messy)) dry on your skin.

One quick method to find out if your plants are datura is to give it the old sniff test. Crushed leaves smell just like peanut butter.

[Too Many Plants!]

Is this the plant or flowers that are deadly to consume? It looks a lot like what grows wild on my property that's said to be deadly. In Flower right now while hot and dry.

Any part of the plant will do it. There are several cardioactive drugs obtained from datura, as well as a few that are hallucinogens.

Some sources will quote all kinds of deadly threats from merely growing any datura. I've never had any issues. I do always make sure that I wash my hands as soon as I get inside. Also, do not let sap from leaves (or sometimes from collecting the spent flowers (which otherwise can become really messy)) dry on your skin.

One quick method to find out if your plants are datura is to give it the old sniff test. Crushed leaves smell just like peanut butter.

Here's pics from just now... 5 pm- 95°F, 32% humidity, they had big white flowers going yesterday or the day before. Seems they're pouting now, so no flowers to photograph. I've never found their flowers to be fragrant.

[Mikent]

Yep, those are datura. During the day, the blooms don't seem to have much scent (at least that's the case with mine). If you happen to be out by the plants in the early evening, you will probably detect a strong floral scent. The more humidity there is in the air, the stronger the scent will be (which seems weird for a plant that grows in arid, or desert-like conditions). No problem attracting the sphinx moth's attention with that scent.

[Too Many Plants!]

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[Too Many Plants!]

Yep, those are datura. During the day, the blooms don't seem to have much scent (at least that's the case with mine). If you happen to be out by the plants in the early evening, you will probably detect a strong floral scent. The more humidity there is in the air, the stronger the scent will be (which seems weird for a plant that grows in arid, or desert-like conditions). No problem attracting the sphinx moth's attention with that scent.

These can be...maybe not invasive, but ready and willing to grow all over if I let them. BTW with ZERO irrigation!

Also, I've handled them a lot tearing them out, and never given any thought to being careful, other than not ingesting, rubbing my eyes, mouth, or nose with them.

And we have the Sphinx moth too...we always called it a hummingbird moth because it flies and behaves much like a hummingbird with flowers.

[Ron]

This is Datura wrightii, growing in Griffith Park, a large urban park in the middle of Los Angeles.  These pictures were taken in June, but the plants are still blooming at the end of August, in a hot, dry area with no rain since early April.  The brush on the sides of roads has recently been cut back for fire safety, but the plants that were cut to the ground are growing and blooming again.  These are very slightly fragrant, but we only hike in the morning.  Some flowers are pure white, but on a nearby plant can have a hint of violet.  The blue green color of these leaves did not come through in the pictures.



In northeast L.A., where our week or two of mild weather is about to be replaced with a heatwave.

[CG100]

I am unsure of what proportion of the genus has scented flowers, but certainly many do not.
Like so many Solanaceae, they contain toxins. Do all parts of all species? Again, I don't know, but it would be wise to assume so (unless we are talking tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines and the like). The species that I have grown also produce a smell very like tomatoes when the foliage is brushed or bruised.

For anyone not familiar with Datura, the fruits are commonly called thorn-apples, in some areas the whole plant is. The fruits here have split and released the copious amounts of seed, while still green.

Even the UK has what is beleieved to be a native species - D. stramonium.

I haven't noticed any for sale recently, but certainly until recent times, hybrids were offered as tender bedding plants in the UK. The flowers came in a variety of colours from white yellows, through orange to near red.

[Martin Bohnet]

Forget about them being all that tender. actually, they have a good chance to survive my "new winters" underground close to the south side of a shed where I grow my tomatoes in summer - well I lost some tomato space since I couldn't get myself to remove those beauties. Thorn apple is quite fitting, by the way. those two are about the size of a tennis ball.

btw I've never met an unscented Datura - maybe one of the orange-red Brugmansias, but all the white-purplish Daturas and the large flowered Brugmansias put out that typical moth-attracting aroma around dusk.

[Too Many Plants!]

BTW, Mikent. Are Datura Geophytes?

[Mikent]

BTW, Mikent. Are Datura Geophytes?

Not really. Or I guess the answer would be yes, but only if you consider it mostly being a taproot that gets kind of woody to qualify it as a geophyte.

[Martin Bohnet]

That's a discussion as old as the pbs - While I'd say they behave so for me, I think it's not their default way of life, so maybe I'm not exactly in favor of this one to be counted as one. Or is it their default? Does anyone know how they behave in their home habitat?

[Too Many Plants!]

That's a discussion as old as the pbs - While I'd say they behave so for me, I think it's not their default way of life, so maybe I'm not exactly in favor of this one to be counted as one. Or is it their default? Does anyone know how they behave in their home habitat?

Well, the one I pictured, and all of them around my property are wild! They come up around my property generally not in areas that are irrigated. It's not been my observation they come up in the same spot with any noticeable repeat. I always assumed they come up from seed...