Re: Datura or Brugmansia

on 11/29/03 5:16 PM, pkssreid at pkssreid@comcast.net wrote:

> Dear Medit Folks:
> On a recent trip through the Napa Valley I purchased an adorable little plant
> in a 4" pot outside a grocery store with a tag in it that said Brugmansia.
> The stems were the color of eggplant and the white flower was reversed in the
> same color.  My brother tells me it is most likely a Datura, and from the
> descriptions of both in my books, it is most likely just that.  However, there
> are only three species of Datura listed in my Botanica, and the plant I have
> doesn't seem to fit the description of the flowers.  Does anyone recognize the
> sound of this cultivar?  The leaves really do look more like the Datura
> leaves.

Karrie,

There seems to be a conspiracy among popular encyclopedic garden references
not to give much or any coverage to Datura--perhaps because they are so
poisonous???  Neither the American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of
Garden Plants nor any of the Sunset regional books even mentions it, but
they do cover Brugmansia!!! Both are filled with psychedelic alkaloids that
can kill.  The most obvious difference between the two genera is that the
flowers of Datura face upward or outward while those of Brugmansia hang
down.  Also, the color range of Datura includes lots of purples and lilac
shades (plus some pale yellows) while Brugmansias vary from white through a
full range of yellows to orange and orange-red, with all kinds of luscious
fruit sherbet shades in between.

With purple stems and reverse, your flower undoubtedly is a form of Datura
metel, the "downy thorn apple," originally native to southern China but now
widely naturalized throughout the tropical regions of the world.  The amount
of purple may vary considerably but the original wild form is single:

http://www.jaymer.com/garden/datura/

A double form has been in cultivation from the early nineteenth century,
originally known under the cultivar name 'Cornupaea'  or 'Horn of Plenty'.
More recently, a mostly double seed strain has been marketed as 'Ballerina
Purple'.  If yours is double, it probably came from this strain (this seed
has been known to produce some singles as well as double and even triple
hose-in-hose forms):

http://www.nb.net/~franklin/Essentials.html

John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9   Sunset zones 21/23
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