Jimson Weed - A Datura Freebie

17 years ago

I had a couple of these pop up in our new flower beds. I knew there were some out in the field last year while the house was being built, but was pleasantly surprised to get a specimen in a good location.

Not as showy a bloom as inoxia or metel, but this (Datura stramonium) has interesting foliage as well as lots of dainty little blooms every day from here on till frost kills it. I wouldn't doubt that this plant will reach 7-8ft tall and at least that far across.

{{gwi:529947}}(Click for larger image)

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Comments (5)

daisydo
17 years ago
They are lovely to look at, but beware of self-seeding. I try to select a few volunteers that are in the right place and spend a great deal of time pulling up the others. I haven't tried cutting off the seed pods to cut down on the number of volunteers, but I should. They are pretty! I think I spy a brug behind yours! Very nice picture.
tngreenthumb
Original Author
17 years ago
Oh yeah, I'll be snipping some seed pods soon. Been too freakin' hot to do much outside.

And yes, that's a versicolor orange back there. Sister plant to this one... It just finished up it's third or fourth flush. Already has 20 or so buds on it again.

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Ha, hallucinogenic veggies. These plants can be a problem but only if the neighborhood kids know to ingest the plant. I can understand your concern though. I would just dig the root ball out, turn the soil well adding some compost and then just plant your veggies. You will then have to watch for seedlings of the plant as they reseed themselves pretty easily. There will be no transfer of the plants chemicals to the soil and any roots left will just compost. Maybe you could relocate your plant to a pot in the backyard. I grow a few brugmansia's which are a very similar plant in pots very successfully. They are such a beautiful plant to have on the patio. _____________________________________________ Check out my veggie garden blog: http://veggiegardenblog.blogspot.com/
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Hi juliebeans, Welcome to Garden Web and The Seed Exchange I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. Please see addressing newbie and newer member issues for instructions on getting it set up so you can easily be reached. You might also want to list in your post, or better yet on your Member Trade List just what you are looking for. hth. Sue
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I think it was supposed to be Datura metel "La Fleur Lilac", but I think it's only Jimson weeds, because the flower was not as spectacular. I don't know if I will make a effort to grow this plant now. I should look around for some real datura seeds, but the link provided by tulsarose has a lot of information on the germination. The germinate takes 60 days, and I did not presoak. I had it in pot, but they never germinated, so I gave up and put them in the soil and forgot about them. Then that one came up, when it got a flower, that sort of looked like a datura a put in a pot, but it's easy to confuse with a weed I have a lot of trouble with."Atropa belladonna" or deathly nightshade, but the one I have has white flowers that turn into small blackberries. It came from the neighbor's side when the fence fell down and a small break in a water pipe washed the seeds to my side. Five years later, I still find these seedlings all over my garden and it could be that I confused nightshade seedlings with the Jimson weeds seedlings, and therefore pulled them all up, not being about the tell the difference. Nightshade makes woody growth and does not die in the winter. It gets very tough and hard to pull out if you let it mature. Its my worst weed now. I am going to look for a real datura and (I think) trash this plant. The flower was not very good, but the seed pods does look interesting. I don't want to get something started that will add to the weed problem.
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I would be concerned about new plants taking up the toxins (atripine, scopolamine & hyoscyamine) which may not hurt the plant but may be consumed by you if you eat veggies that have it. All three chemicals are hullicinaginic and atripine has serious cardic and breathing effects making them possibly deadly. I don't know if they would take them up but I would be consirned about it. One story that comes to mind from one of my general physiology courses in collage is as follows. An individual noticed that a jimson weed plant (also in the Solanaceae family) looked just like his tomato plant yet grew much faster. He spliced the upper portion of his tomato plant to the bottom half of the jimson weed thus having a tomato top with jimson weed roots. The story says that after eating some tomatos latter that year his whole family ended up in the ER with datura poisening. Like I said, I do not know if the plants can take these chemicals up, nor do I know if these chemicals are degraded over time, nor do I know if our biology professor was pulling our leg but given any doubt I would not take the chance.
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tngreenthumb
Original Author
17 years ago
A closeup of one of the blooms. Just in case anyone is interested...

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gardengrove_ac
17 years ago
I'm growing the 'la fleur' var. this summer. Mine is already as tall as I am and if you keep the flowers pinched you can get up to several dozen a night. Bear in mind however that you're gonna want to either be very observant about the pods and pinch them off or make sure you watch them daily because when they explode it sends the thousands of seeds in all directions. These plants are hardcore "weeds" if you don't want them around though, but they are drought resistant and pertty tough in general. I hope to get some other Datura species for next season, along with a few more brug colors if anyone is interested.
Peace,
Nathan
gardengrove_ac
17 years ago
I'm growing the 'la fleur' var. this summer. Mine is already as tall as I am and if you keep the flowers pinched you can get up to several dozen a night. Bear in mind however that you're gonna want to either be very observant about the pods and pinch them off or make sure you watch them daily because when they explode it sends the thousands of seeds in all directions. These plants are hardcore "weeds" if you don't want them around though, but they are drought resistant and pertty tough in general. I hope to get some other Datura species for next season, along with a few more brug colors if anyone is interested.
Peace,
Nathan

Jimson Weed - A Datura Freebie

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Jimson Weed - A Datura Freebie

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daisydo

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