I really can not say anything about the brugs smelling indoors. Since I have not had one bloom on the plant. But I did bring in a bloom from Andrew's Gold last fall and had it continue to bloom in the room I sleep in and the fragrance was just to much and gave me a headache. Not toxic...such to much of a real good thing lol

You have to digest the plant to get the toxic effects of it. I am pretty sure of it. Otherwise we would have lots of dead or ill folks when our Brugs bloom and we sniff the hell out of em lol

Lucy

The sap can cause dermatitis and can be absorbed through cuts, mucous membranes and eyes. Ingestion cause hallucinations, coma, seizures and death. Used by medicine men in Peru for religious ceremonies. Toxicity varies greatly, as with all plants, depending on growing conditions. So a plant that is toxic in Peru might not be toxic in the US. And that seems to be the case w/brugs, not as toxic if grown here. The sap can cause your pupils to dilate and stay that way for a couple of hours.
Datura are also toxic. They both contain compounds that affect your heart.
Tally HO!

When I can smell them I find the scent of both datura and brugs sometimes unpleasant because they are cloying.

I don't think the scent alone could hurt you, but if you or your SO are uncomfortable with it, then go with your gut and don't sleep with it in the room.

I don't believe that the scent is harmful. If you have severe respiratory problems the scent might possibly trigger an asthma attack. I too think it can be overwhelming in a confined area and don't usually allow them to bloom indoors. BTW I'm asthmatic and the brug fragrance, even in a closed area, has never triggered an attack.

Okay, thanks to all for your input. My wife demanded I ask someone. She said she felt as if it was giving her a headache. Our bedroom is small, and they're only two blooms on it. I have an awesome sniffer. I can smell it even at the end of our hallway which leads to the bedroom. Once in the room it is overwhelming to me as well.

It doesn't seem so strong now as it did last night. Again, thanks so much. Also check for my other post here shortly, I have posted some pictures of the blooms.

Here is the link to my other posting with pics of my first brugmansia blooms. I'm so tickled :), seriously over tickled I believe.

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/brug/msg1010582729570.html

Didn't anybody see Butterfly Effect 3??? A single sniff of the flower will render you completely unconscious, LOL!

I HATE when movies make up $#!T like this just because it's convenient to the plot!

Well movies are entertainment, so . . . :o)

I did have a couple of triffids growing in my garden this year.lol

lovetogrowflowers you won't notice much of a scent, if any, during the daytime. Most brugs only produce a fragrance at night.

Jonnie some mystery novel I read many years ago made mention of a "beautiful but deadly" angel trumpet tree. That's what set me on the search for my first brug. lol I wish I could remember the book.

Karyn, thanks for telling me that. I learn something new everyday. I have been going out and smelling it all day on and off, and thinking where in the heck did that smell go. I knew it had to be something like that. Kinda neat. Excuse my excitement. I'm a newbie brug owner remember. Thanks again.

The smell is just strong so its like wearing a bottle of perfume. Most perfumes give me a headache so maybe thats whats wrong with your wife. Sensitive nose. I love to smell mine outside but the scent in the house is overpowering.

from Tonny Surrow-Hansen's Brugmansia Blog THERE IS SOME INTERESTING READING THERE.

In Bogotá in Colombia, if a person can not sleep, there is an old saying that they should just sit an hour under a flowering Borrachero (Brugmansia) tree then they will be able to sleep again. Another story goes that it is dangerous to fall asleep under a Borrachero (Brugmansia) tree, because the smell of the flowers will make you sleep forever. No Colombian in his right mind would ever dare to sit on a bench under a blooming tree and even the fact that a tourist stops under one of these causes the local people to stop up and stare, because never have they seen such stupidity.

PA now those are interesting blog stories. Getting out my camping gear ...I need a good sleep lol

Lucy

very many thanks for the information contained in these comments. it's the only place I have found where the smell is discussed. we have cuttings growing on the window ledge in our bedroom and I had heard that sleeping in the same room as the plants is thought to be dangerous so I am very reassured by the comments here. one plant is forming a flower but I think i will remove it!

Late to the party, but wanted to add that there is a lot of "folk medicine", for lack of a better term, that suggests sleeping with some amount of Datura (Brugmansia is a close relative, and the two are often mixed up in literature old and new) close by can induce intense, vivid, sometimes unpleasant dreams. One bit I've come across suggests putting a blossom or two under your pillow when you've lost something, and you'll dream of its location. Considering some of the research being done into microdosing psychedelics to enhance mental performance including short-term memory, this might not be completely full of hot air. (As someone participating in research on microdosing as an adjunct to conventional psychiatric medication and psychotherapy to treat intractable C-PTSD, I'm inclined to believe there's something to it, anyway. But what do I know, I'm on drugs ;) )

In theory, it's perfectly possible that the few stray bits of pollen and chemical compounds being consumed in its presence (remember, if you can smell it, that means molecules of it went into your body. Fun!) might be enough to induce sub-perceptive psychotropic effects; consuming that tiny dose steadily over the course of several hours would really increase the odds on that.

The chances of anyone sleeping with a bowl of these blossoms in their bedroom suffering severe or life-threatening effects, however, is about as tiny as the amount of said flower they'd be consuming.

BUT, people with sensitivity to fragrances are probably gonna suffer regardless. (I'm familiar with this hell; a few hours spent with a relative who used scented hand soap would put my mom in bed with a puking migraine for days.) But this is going to be true of any strongly-scented flower, unfortunately. The toxicity of the plant in question really isn't going to play into that, I don't think.

It is interesting that Aufbrezeln Eschaton mentions perfumed soap as that is exactly what the fragrance smells like to me. I live in Colombia and have ten or twelve Brugmansia growing on my country property. Mine produce white flowers but I'm not confident of the species. The trees flower every couple of months and emanate their scent beginning about 5:30 pm then through he night until about 6 am.

An interesting feature of this tree is that it almost always grows in the presence of human habitation. It has popped up by its self on my and my neighbor's property without deliberate planting but you will never find it out in the cloud forest around our homes. One authority, Lord Alistair Hay has written that it is a cultivar and probably has been growing near Indian settlements for ten thousand years here in South America.

It is certainly toxic. Criminals in South America have used it for years to knock out victims and evidently native Indians used it against early Spanish invaders. Some Indian caciques in Colombia and Peru add it to ayahuasca to intensify the effect of that hallucinatory drug. Recreational drug users in the US have made a tea from the leaves and there are reports of some deaths resulting from it's consumption.

A truly exhaustive tome has been written on the subject : Huanduj, Brugmansia by Alistair Hay, Monika Gottschalk and Adolfo Holguin .

One of the authors, Lord Alistair Hay mentioned above is the former director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Sydney, Australia. He owns a property in Colombia not far from mine where he grows every color imaginable of Brugmansia flowers.

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I recently took a selfie with my dog sitting directly under my angel trumpet, is it possible to be poisoned by the pollen of the plant?