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Home | Arizona y Sonora > Desert wildflowers > White to cream flowers > Datura
(Datura meteloides)
Common names: sacred datura, jimson weed.
Annual herb, Potato Family.
Blooms May-October from Colorado and Utah south through southern California, Texas and into Mexico.
2-3 feet (60-90 cm) with big, single, smooth-edged leaves.
Grows in rank, sprawling clumps along roadsides and in water canyons. Flowers open at dusk and close by midmorning of the next day. Pollinated by Hawkmoths which get tipsy on the hallucinogenic alkaloids in the nectar. All parts of the plant contain alkaloids which are poisonous, sometimes fatal, to humans as well as hallucinogenic. Some Native American religions use datura in their rituals to induce visions. The seeds are said to prevent miscarriages.
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