NIGHTSHADE FAMILY SOLANACEAE 
JIMSON WEED 
Datura Stramonium L. 
The juices of this plant have a rather disagreeable odor and 
‘contain a poisonous substance which is the source of a valuable 
narcotic medicine. Rather serious results have been produced 
by holding the cut stem of 
a flower in the mouth. 
The Jimson Weed is a 
tropical plant which prob- 
ably came originally from 
India but which has become 
naturalized in this country 
from Nova Scotia to Florida 
and west to Minnesota and 
Texas. It is often found 
growing around and effec- 
tively hiding old rubbish 
heaps or neglected barn- 
yards, but it is also a fre- 
quent weed in cultivated 
fields. It is an annual whose 
stout smooth stem grows 
1-5 feet high and branches 
considerably. 
WA The large white flowers 
= 4, : are produced from June to 
September. They open at 
evening and close after the 
sun comes out next day, being pollinated largely by night-flying 
hawk moths. There are 5 stamens attached near the middle of 
the corolla tube, and a single pistil with a slender style. The fruit 
is a capsule and contains a very large number of seeds. 
The much more common Purple Jimson Weed, Datura Tatula L., 
is very similar except that its stem, also 1-5 feet tall, is purple, com- 
monly more slender and usually a little more hairy. The leaves too © 
are like those of the Jimson Weed but are darker green or with a tinge — 
of purple. The corolla is lavender to purple or the tube may be nearly 
white. This plant is also an immigrant from the tropics. The fruits 
of both species are burlike but will not stick to anything. The longer 
prickles of the Purple Jimson Weed fruit are nearly equal. 
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