Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Devil's Trumpet

(Datura innoxia)

galery
en

Description

Datura metel is a shrub-like annual (zone 5-7) or short-lived, shrubby perennial (zone 8-10), commonly known in Europe as Indian Thornapple, Hindu Datura, or Metel and in the U.S.A. as Devil's Trumpet or Angel's Trumpet. Datura metel is naturalised in all the warmer countries of the world - notably in India, where it is known by the ancient, Sanskrit-derived, Hindi name (dhatūra) -from which the genus name Datura is derived. The plant is cultivated worldwide, both as an ornamental and for its medicinal properties, the latter being due (like those of all Datura species) to its tropane alkaloid content. Like its hardier and smaller-flowered relative Datura stramonium, it is now of widespread occurrence, although showing a preference for warmer climates and of more attractive appearance. Datura metel was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, but few botanically correct illustrations were made until after the New World was settled. The original home of the plant (long conjectured to have been India) is now known to have been somewhere in the Americas, probably the Greater Antilles. As late as 1992 it was still being claimed that the plant was native probably to the mountainous regions of Pakistan or Afghanistan westward. While there now remains no doubt that the species originated in the New World, evidence is mounting that it was introduced to the Indian subcontinent - whether by human agency or some chance natural event is not known - at an early date (no later than the 4th century CE) preceding by far the arrival of the first European explorers in the Americas. The plant is an annual or short-lived shrubby perennial herb (lacking the fleshy, perennial roots found in perennial species such as Datura innoxia (from which it has been found to have been created by selective breeding) and Datura wrightii) growing up to 6 ft (1.8 m) high. It is slightly pubescent, with green to dark violet shoots and oval to broad oval leaves that are often dark violet as well. The pleasantly-scented 6–8 in (15–20 cm) flowers are immensely varied, and can be single or double. Corolla colour can range from white to cream, yellow, red, and violet. The seed capsule is covered with numerous conical warts or short, sparse spines.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Solanales
Family:Solanaceae
Genus:Datura
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