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(Last Modified On 5/15/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/15/2013)
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Genus
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Datura L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 179. 1753
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Note
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TYPE: D. tstramonium L.
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Synonym
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Stramonium Mill., Gard. Dict., abr. ed. 4. 1754. TYPE: Not designated. Apemon Raf., Fl. Tell. 2: 11. 1837. TYPE: A. crassicaule Raf. (= Datura ceratocaulos Ort.). Ceratocaulos Bern. ex Reichb., Handb. 201. 1837. TYPE: Datura ceratocaulos Ort.
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Description
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Unarmed, ephemeral or perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes foetid, pubes- cence of mostly simple, sometimes viscid hairs; twigs stout or slender. Leaves simple and entire, repand or variously pinnately lobed or toothed, petiolate; minor leaves present and resembling the major leaves. Flowers solitary (some- times aggregated) on erect or pendulous pedicels; calyx tubular, sometimes inflated and sometimes appressed to the corolla tube, prefloration complete and floral egress mostly by 5 valvate teeth, the tube then circumscissile near the base leaving a flange which may enlarge into a shield or cup subtending the fruit; corolla funnelform, tubiform or almost tubular, mostly white or purplish, flaccid, glabrous or variously pubescent, the limb 5- or 10-lobed, sometimes double or triple; stamens equal, the filaments inserted near the middle of the tube or
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Habit
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herbs or shrubs
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Description
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lower, variously pubescent, the anthers oblong and slightly curved, blasifixed, dehiscing longitudinally, free; ovary conical, 4-loculed by proliferation of the placentae, the ovules many, the stigma variously shaped. Fruit a leathery 4-celled capsule, mostly locucidally dehiscent terminally to about halfway down, usually covered with soft or woody spines, more or less globose; seeds large, mostly black, flattened and roughened; embryo circinnate in fleshy endosperm. A genus of about ten species of warm temperate regions in both New and Old Worlds. Eight species are native to Mexico and the southern United States, which region may be considered a center of speciation. Commonly occurring as ruderal weeds, one species of Mexico is paludal. Some species are nocturnally scented.
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Note
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Plants in this genus contain the alkaloids atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and others closely related which are common to the drugs bella-donna, hyoscya- mus, stramonium, etc., of various pharmacopoeas. Alkaloids are found in several parts of the plants. Leaves are smoked in some countries and are used as catoplasms to reduce pain or swelling. The seeds are in some places a traditional method of criminal poisoning. Unlike the alkaloids of tobacco, those of Datura (and of Brugmansia) in the quantities obtained from single seeds or puffs of smoke may produce drastic or violent reactions. The lethal dose may be small. In some countries there is elaborate ritual centering around these plants. In Panama, one species is occasionally cultivated for ornament and the other, known only from one collection, is commonly a ruderal weed in other countries. The climate of Panama may be too moist for establishment of this genus in a wild state. The name is a Latin corruption of "Dutra," an Indian name for Datura stramonium.
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Common
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Dutra
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Reference
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Safford, W. D. Synopsis of the genus Datura. Jour. Washington Acad. Sdi. 11: 173-182. 1921.
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Key
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a. Fruit inclined or nodding, not debiscing regularly, and 'covered with stout spines or bumps; cultivated ornamental ...... 1. D. metel aa. Fruit erect, dehiscing by 4 valves, and covered with slender spines; ruderal weed ...... 2. D. stramonium
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