(Last Modified On 5/15/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/15/2013)
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Species
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Datura metel L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 179. 1753.
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Note
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TYPE: Hort. Cliff. 55.2 (BM)
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Synonym
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Datura fastuosa L., Syst., ed. 10. 2: 932. 1759. TYPE: LINN 243.3, (not seen; NY, photo).
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Description
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Glabrate shrub to 2 m tall; twigs dark, purplish-colored (Panama). Leaves broadly ovate, to 15 cm long, margins subentire to repand-dentate, the base truncate or obtuse and oblique, the lamina with scattered small hairs; petioles slender, 3-8 cm long. Pedicels stout, erect or nodding, ca. 10 mm long, tardily deciduous at the base. Flowers with the calyx tubular, little or not inflated, slightly wider at base and apex, 3-8 cm long, opening by 5 subequal lobes 1-2 cm long, circumscissile near the base leaving a distinct flange 5-15 mm long, glabrous or puberulent with short, simple hairs, drying with prominent longi- tudinal veins; corolla showy white or purple, tubiform, the narrowly obconical
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Habit
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shrub
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Description
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tube filling the calyx, 8-20 cm long, the limb sometimes double or triple, flaring to 3-10 cm across, sinuately 5-lobed with 5 or 10 linear teeth; filaments glabrous, sometimes connate or apically appendaged, anthers ca. 10 mm long; ovary short- conical, style glabrous. Fruit ovoid or elliptical to 4 cm long, splitting irregularly, covered with conspicuous tubercles or soft, stout teeth, 4-loculed, many seeded, nodding to somewhat upright but not strictly erect; seeds flattened, reniform, ca. 5 mm long, with a small fleshy aril.
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Note
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First described from southeast Asia and east Africa, D. metel is cultivated in the tropics and indoors in temperate regions. The single locality in Chiriqui where this species has been collected is below 350 m elevation; however, residents of the Volca'n District (1,200-2,000 m) say that a purple "floripondio" was occasionally cultivated there many years ago. They may be referring to this species. A member of a genus normally considered to be herbaceous, Datura metel is capable of becoming shrubby and quite woody at the base. The Panamanian specimen cited here was 2 m tall and spreading across 1 m in the crown.
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Specimen
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CHIRIQUI: In garden, Gualaca, D'Arcy 5480 (MO).
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Project Name
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