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    W. J. Beal: of Interest This Week at Beal... Angel's Trumpets Datura Inoxia

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    Queremosabarrabás A Barrabás
    Angel's Trumpets (Datura inoxia) is a bushy, semi-woody plant native to southern and southwestern United States and Mexico that produces large, fragrant white flowers throughout the summer. While it has a long history of use for spiritual/psychoactive purposes, its toxins like atropine and scopolamine can cause dangerous effects if consumed, even in small amounts. The plant is commonly found as an ornamental but care must be taken due to the risk of accidental poisoning, especially for children drawn to its smell.

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    W. J. Beal: of Interest This Week at Beal... Angel's Trumpets Datura Inoxia

    Uploaded by

    Queremosabarrabás A Barrabás
    80 views2 pages
    Angel's Trumpets (Datura inoxia) is a bushy, semi-woody plant native to southern and southwestern United States and Mexico that produces large, fragrant white flowers throughout the summer. While it has a long history of use for spiritual/psychoactive purposes, its toxins like atropine and scopolamine can cause dangerous effects if consumed, even in small amounts. The plant is commonly found as an ornamental but care must be taken due to the risk of accidental poisoning, especially for children drawn to its smell.

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    Datura Inoxia

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    Datura Inoxia 20080109

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    Angel's Trumpets (Datura inoxia) is a bushy, semi-woody plant native to southern and southwestern United States and Mexico that produces large, fragrant white flowers throughout the summer. While it has a long history of use for spiritual/psychoactive purposes, its toxins like atropine and scopolamine can cause dangerous effects if consumed, even in small amounts. The plant is commonly found as an ornamental but care must be taken due to the risk of accidental poisoning, especially for children drawn to its smell.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    80 views2 pages

    W. J. Beal: of Interest This Week at Beal... Angel's Trumpets Datura Inoxia

    Uploaded by

    Queremosabarrabás A Barrabás
    Angel's Trumpets (Datura inoxia) is a bushy, semi-woody plant native to southern and southwestern United States and Mexico that produces large, fragrant white flowers throughout the summer. While it has a long history of use for spiritual/psychoactive purposes, its toxins like atropine and scopolamine can cause dangerous effects if consumed, even in small amounts. The plant is commonly found as an ornamental but care must be taken due to the risk of accidental poisoning, especially for children drawn to its smell.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Of interest this week at Beal...

    Angels Trumpets
    Datura inoxia

    W. J. Beal

    Botanical Garden

    Family: the Tomato family, Solanaceae.


    Also called Devils Trumpet, Thorn-apple, Indian apple,
    Purple Datura, Garden Datura, Horn-of-Plenty, Chaico Blanco,
    Yerba Diablo, Davids Bush, Concombre zombi.
    This rather bushy appearing tomato relative displays its striking white flowers
    throughout the hottest months in Michigan, but it is native to southerly and
    southwestern U.S. states and Mexico, south at least to Nicaragua. Some authors
    have claimed that the original range also included the Caribbean, and China,
    although centuries of use in many cultures has obscured is true biogeography. It is
    now considered a pan-tropical weed. This genus, Datura, has a long history in plant
    toxicology, and this species is part of that history. It has a place in the ethnobotany
    of the American Southwest. Some of these observations were published in the wellknown, if controversial, series of books in which Carlos Castaneda writes of his
    journey, as a participant, into Yaqui shamanism. In his narrative, this plant is exploited
    for spiritual/psychoactive purposes. However, its properties as a drug, and the
    accounts of those who have made the mistake of thinking that this plant is a possible
    recreational, make plain how stark and even brain damaging this plant can become.
    In the Mexico/Central American portion of its range, criminals have occasionally
    administered it to victims who can be left deranged or killed by its effects.

    Angel Trumpets are grey-tinted semi-woody bushes of waste places, weed patches, and
    semi-desert communities. Although perennial, they often die back to ground level after
    a particularly dry season, and are grown as annuals in colder, more northerly temperate
    parts of the U.S. They can reach heights of 6 feet (2 meters), and in the last half of
    the summer produce abundant bright white (sometimes slightly yellow or purple),
    solitary flowers exceeding 7 inches (18 cm) in diameter. The large leaves are covered
    with short fuzz that yield a rather blue/gray appearance. Before the flowers open, they
    are twirled into a spiral, as seen from the far end. The flowers develop into a slightly
    elongated, very spiky seedpod (often called Thornapple) about 2 (5 cm) in diameter.

    Many poisonings have been reported from accidental or recreational


    consumption of the seeds from the spiney pods (below).

    The two most prominent toxins associated with Datura inoxia are atropine and
    scopalomine. The inventory of defensive chemistry also includes hyoscyamine,
    hyoscine, norscopalomine, and meteloidine. While these are the source of its
    hallucinatory reputation, they are also a source of dementia, psychosis, heart distress
    with tachycardia and increase of systolic blood pressure. The main use of angel
    trumpets in the present day is as an accent plant for the garden or landscape.
    Angels trumpets can be kept in almost any location, in the lower 48 states, provided
    it receives full sun for the summer months. It is not recommended for use around
    childrens play areas because the sweet smelling flowers attract attention and
    experimentation from small children. A minuscule piece of leaf or flower, eaten by a
    very young child is a clinical dose. This large and imposing plant has a rather rank,
    almost stale-popcorn aroma that is irritating to some people.

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