I have been seeing this plant around lately. I think it's Dartura. It's lovely but if I'm right about what it is, it's dangerous.
20091111
Dartura?
I have been seeing this plant around lately. I think it's Dartura. It's lovely but if I'm right about what it is, it's dangerous.
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Rub the leaves, if they smell like peanut butter that's it.
Indeed, big white flowers tha only last until the heat of the day, big round spiky seed balls full of 1000's of seeds, That would indeed be Datura, beautiful plant, but smoking/eating/drinking any of it should only be done under expert supervision!
They are picky about where they want to grow(sandy soil where they can tap reliable water), and don't transplant well.
Um don't even under expert supervision. Every single person I know who has taken it has ended up in the hospital. That said I'm always tempted to try. They actually see things, full on hallucinations.
There is an old saying, "Try a little, talk to God. Try too much meet him in person"
Dangerous stuff!
Cool looking plant though.
Dangerous stuff!
There is an old saying, "Try a little, talk to God. Try too much meet him in person"
Cool looking flower though. Georgia O'Keefe painted a few
Sometimes called Loco weed out west, cuz the cattle go loco after being foolish enough to eat some.
I read an apocryphal story about someone who actually grafted a tomato sprout onto a Datura and it took. Both Tomatoes and Datura are from the Solanaceae family, so I guess they had a similar enough biochemistry to make a successful graft. The ripe tomatoes however, were bitter and caused quite a ruckus since at least 3 people who taste-tested them ended up in hospital with hallucinations. The toxin is produced in the leaves and the tomato shoot got dosed by sharing a vascular system with them.
It's pretty much universally a "bad trip" and it's too easy to overdose, so either way it's not worth going there.
I tell you this.. you have one.. next season you'll have 20 and then next year hundreds! and EVERYWHERE. not a good plant to be popping up in your leafy greens! My husband has this thing with planting "rare" or Different plants(mainly poisonous weeds) and then i cant contain them and my veggie garden gets full of them and then my son tries to eat them! Just let the questionable plants be in their beauty, in the wild!
It does wonders for asthmatics when the dried leaves are smoked. It is also used for muscular spasms but for this use, it requires some expertise. One good thing you could use the leaves for your plants, the smell keeps lots of harmful bugs away.
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