Planted some Datura

[valley ranch]

• 
• Great looking flowers, they don't last very long do they. We have used this plant for sniffles, but very, very seldom.

I dug this plant up at our rental, and planted it here, I was pleased to see it took off so well.

Richard

 

[Nyboy]

Beautiful !!!!!

 

[Smart Red]

I love moon flowers. I used to plant them, but for some reason I stopped. Gotta get them growing along the bedroom deck. Valley, it sounded as if yours are growing as perennials. Are they or did I mis-read your post?

 

[journey11]

So pretty and such a heavenly scent. My kids just wait and watch for them to open of an evening. I have found honey bees working them at dusk, well after they should have gone to bed!

I only had to plant datura once and now it is with me for life. They reseed like crazy. The roots are also winter hardy here and they will come back on last year's roots many times.

I am curious what parts you prepare medicinally for a cold? I had heard that all parts of the plant were very toxic. I Googled it to get some idea of how it is used medicinally and was surprised to find it is also used to get high.

It's a beautiful plant though and one that will always be one of my favorites.

 

[valley ranch]

Journey, The leaves, a single small portion of a leave dried, washed down with drink will dry up a runney nose. Once when I was very young I downed way too much, and had a thirst that could not be quenched. The plant contains Atropine sulfate an ingredient in Dristan the cold med. They can also recover from the seeds.

I'm not prescribing this! I don't want anyone to do this.
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This was growing at a property of ours, a couple weeks back I dug one small plant and brought it here. It has been so happy, I'm pleased to have it.

The folks use to grow many thing on the ranch to be used in Old Country Meds.

 

[Smart Red]

Love this site! Learn new stuff every day! Thanks, valley ranch!

 

[NwMtGardener]

Considering how atropine affects your heart I wouldn't feel comfortable using this as a home remedy. Sniffles are just not that big of a deal to me to risk it! Beautiful plant though.

 

[valley ranch]

I take no med at all if it can be helped, I planted the datura because
I really like the plant. I was supprised, a couple years back, to see hornworms on a datura plant, I thought nothing could eat it.

 

[so lucky]

I think some people are confusing datura with moon flower vine. Datura is jimson weed, also called devils trumpet and angels trumpet. Pretty sure both would be annuals. Datura is same family as belladona. Its seed pod looks like a torture device, in my opinion.

 

[journey11]

I think some people are confusing datura with moon flower vine. Datura is jimson weed, also called devils trumpet and angels trumpet. Pretty sure both would be annuals. Datura is same family as belladona. Its seed pod looks like a torture device, in my opinion.

When my grandma gave me some seed, she called them moon flower, but that was a misplaced common name. These datura I have are not the same as the true Moon Flower vine. The blooms look so much alike, so I think that's where the confusion comes from. Then there's Angel's Trumpets which also look similar, but are in the genus brugmansia. I remember when I first joined TEG many moons ago, a fella explained to me that the way to tell those two apart is that angels trumpet downward from heaven, and the devils are trumpeting upward. Both are in the solanaceae family or "nightshades", so closely related. I think the brugmansia are so much prettier, since they come in different colors and look to me like an elegant dancer's skirt. I also find Jimson weed (datura) popping up in my garden a couple times each year too and it looks very much like the cultivated datura, but not as showy.

Yeah, they're technically annuals for most areas, but in warmer climates they can be a perennial. I have had the roots survive where I've planted them up against the eastern side of the house where they get some shelter from the winter winds. Elsewhere they usually don't come back though. Those pods are evil little things! I am usually running barefoot or in sandals and have stepped on them a couple of times. Almost as bad as stepping on a chestnut burr.

The brugmansia don't have spikey seed pods. I think I'd rather grow those! But with both being poisonous, I probably shouldn't be growing them at all. You know how kids like to play with flowers and make concoctions and stuff. The burrs on the datura turned me off of them several years ago, but they reseed so vigorously they always come back on their own.

Does anyone know if it's a bad idea to put them in your compost? I've been tossing the plants over the hill, because I worry about the chickens getting poisoned as they scratch about the compost. I figured better safe than sorry.