Datura metel

Datura metel L., Sp. Pl. 179. 1753; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed 1: 372. 1918 (Reprint 1973); Kaur & Sharma, Fl. Sirmaur. 451. 2004; Satina & Avery, Gen. Datura. 32. 1959; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 17: 330; D. alba Rumph. ex. Nees. Trans. Linn. Soc. London 17: 73. 1834; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed 1: 372. 1918 (Reprint 1973); D. fastuosa L. Syst. Nat. ed. 10(2): 932. 1759; Parker, For. Fl. Punj. ed 1: 372. 1918 (Reprint 1973); Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 242. 1885.

Annual or perennial herbs, erect, 0.5-1.5 m tall, glabrescent. Stems often dark violet. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole 2-6(-9) cm; leaf blade ovate or broadly ovate, 5-18 cm x 4-13 cm, membranous, glabrescent, base truncate, cuneate or asymmetrical, margin irregularly sinuate- dentate, lobed or entire, apex acuminate; veins 4-6 pairs. Flowers solitary, axillary, actinomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous, hypogynous, large, showy, erect. Pedicel ca. 1 cm long, stout. Calyx long tubular, 4-8 cm long, circumscissile near base; lobes 5, triangular, acuminate, ca. 1 cm long, 8 mm broad, puberulent. Corolla white, yellowish or pale purple, funnelform, 14-16 cm long; limb ca. 8 cm in diameter, lobes 5, shallow, broadly triangular, tip cuspidate (ca. 6 mm long), puberulent outside. Stamens 5, epipetalous, alternate, included; filaments ca. 9.5 cm long, free parts of filaments ca. 3 cm, filaments glandular pubescent or puberulent, included; anthers oblong, margin ciliate, dehiscing longitudinally. Disc annular, irregularly lobed. Carpels 2, syncarpous; ovary conical, warty, 2-4-locular, placentas swollen, placentation axile; style ca. 11 cm long, puberulent; stigma shallowly bifid. Capsule deflexed, +/- 3.5 cm in diameter, armed with tubercles or short, conical and ca. 1 mm long spines; capsule dehiscing irregularly or by 4 irregular valves, subtended by remnants of persistent calyx. Seeds numerous, laterally compressed, embryo curved, pale-brown, reniform-discoid, ca. 3 mm in diameter.

Flowering and Fruiting: April to December
Common Names: Indian Thornapple, Downy Thornapple, Hindu Datura, Metel, Devil’s Trumpet, Angel’s Trumpet, Horn of Plenty; Dhatura or Safed Dhatura (Hindi)