Last year I received a white trumpet flower plant from a friend and I liked it right from the beginning.
I mean you have large white blooms and nice foliage. It is what my little flower garden needed: some green
with a Pop of white. What's not to like, right? Then as I always do, I did some research on the internet,
and I found out some interesting information about the Datura Inoxia (Devil's Trumpet) plant that I now possess.
This plant has a dark side.
The most obvious item is the ominous Devil's Trumpet name. Many have heard of the Angel's Trumpet flower, in
which the blooms droop down. Well, my friends, the Devil's Trumpet blooms upward as in a trumpet from not heaven
but hell. Devil’s trumpet is
grown in all but the coldest climates as a flowering
ornamental. There are white, purple, and yellow
varieties with large, single and double blossoms
available. Devil’s trumpet grows naturally in
disturbed areas such as eroded sites, old fields,
vacant lots, overgrazed pastures and rangeland,
roadsides and abandoned roadbeds, and fencerows.
Apparently, disturbance and reduced competition
are required for the plant to become established
and grow. A wide variety of well-drained soils on
both igneous and sedimentary parent materials are
suitable.
The Datura Inoxia (Devil's Trumpet) Dark Past, Present and Future: Use With Caution
From ancient times continuing to the
present, the taking of Datura tissues,
particularly the seeds, was used in shamanistic
rituals as a path to enlightenment. Today, people frequently
experiment with it for the hallucinogenic effect,
but the results are so unpleasant (dark visions,
disorientation, amnesia, blurred vision, dry mouth,
and incontinence) that they seldom recommend the
experience. Overdoses can result in
death. The plant has been used to treat impotence,
asthma, diarrhea, as an analgesic, to control fever,
kill parasites, and as a drug for criminal purposes. Devil’s trumpet
contains a host of phytoactive chemicals including
atropine, hyoscyamine, hyoscine, scopolamine,
norscopolamine, meteloidine, hydroxy-6-
hyoscyamine, tiglic esters of dihydroxytropine,
and a number of withanolides. It causes erratic
behavior and even death of livestock that have
eaten it, but it is seldom a problem for pastured
animals because they carefully avoid consuming it.
Hummingbirds sometimes visit the flowers,
but are affected by the alkaloids in the nectar and
must limit their consumption. Honeybees are
apparently unaffected. The flowers have an intense
night fragrance, which
perhaps helps attract night-flying moths.
I like my Devil's Trumpet flower, but with all that is going on with this plant, I couldn't
recommend it to everyone. Come to think of it, I guess it has Devil in its name for more reasons than one. You've been warned.
Source: John K. Francis, Research Forester,
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
International Institute of Tropical Forestry,
Jardín Botánico Sur, 1201 Calle Ceiba, San Juan PR
00926-1119,
in cooperation with the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PR 00936-4984
