Datura metel L.

Family

Solanaceae

Synonyms

Datura fastuosa L

Vernacular Names

Geographical Distributions

This plant is probably of American origin; widely cultivated and naturalised in all tropical and subtropical regions. In South-East Asia, D. metel is reported for Indo-China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia (cultivated and locally naturalised in the northern part), Brunei, Java (cultivated and naturalised), the Philippines (naturalised, sometimes cultivated) and Papua New Guinea (very locally cultivated and naturalised).

Description

It is an annual or short-lived perennial herb up to 200 cm tall. The stem is short-haired to smooth.

The leaves are egg-shaped to angular broad-ovate, 4-25 cm x 2-20 cm, entire to repand-dentate-lobed. The petiole is up to 16 cm long.

The flowers are with petals of (12-)14-18(-20) cm long, simple or double, and white or purplish in colour.

The fruit is deflexed when mature, with numerous conical tubercles of approximately equal length.

Ecology / Cultivation

D. metel is often cultivated in gardens and yards (often with double and purplish petals), but also grows wild or naturalised (usually with simple and whitish petals). It is also locally abundant in waste places, roadsides, brushwood, open grassland, teak forest and on river banks, up to 1000 m altitude.

Line Drawing / Photograph

Read More

  1) Safety

  2) Poisonus

References

1. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1.