Datura...mysterious...beautiful...perhaps a bit sinister?

[Atash Hagmahani]

These grow like weeds in my garden. Related to "Jimson Weeds", but perennial. Used to be called "Datura meteloides", but now it's "Datura wrightii". From moist places in the subtropical southwestern USA; I have seen them wild along the Sacramento River in Sacramento, California. I have their South American cousins Brugmansias too, but Daturas seem to perform a lot better in my climate. They die back to a caudex but come back promptly.

The flowers only come in white, or white edged with purple. These have a faint purple edge but invisible in the photograph as it is too faint. I would have liked more purple on the edge.

They have a strong lemony fragrance at night. Pollinated by bats and hawkmoths.

Scale of the things: those blossoms are about 10 inches wide and maybe 18 inches long.

[Atash Hagmahani]

These get a lot of attention in my garden. Most people have never seen one before. But if the person is middle class and of a certain age or over, I remind them of Georgia O'Keefe's painting "Morning Glory".

She found one, mistook it for a Morning Glory, and painted it. It's a well-known painting.

[opsec]

What is so sinister about these?

[Atash Hagmahani]

Powerfully psychotropic.

In 1676, British soldiers were sent to stop the Rebellion of Bacon. Jamestown weed (Jimsonweed) was boiled for inclusion in a salad, which the soldiers readily ate. The hallucinogenic properties of jimsonweed took affect.

As told by Robert Beverly in The History and Present State of Virginia (1705): The soldiers presented "a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

"In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves - though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed."

It took 11 days for the effect to wear off.

[opsec]

Nasty.

[Beeherder]

or disarming