Jimson Weed - Part II

The Sacred Datura blossom has long captivated artists and poets The Jimson Weed (Datura Stramonium) appears in paintings by the famed Modernist artist Georgia O’Keeffe. (1887 – 1986) - Known for the flower paintings, which encompass a quarter of her work, she was originally inspired by nature during her childhood in rural Wisconsin.

Jimson Weed (Datura Stramonium)

The following is a legend about this beautiful flower.

When the early settlers arrived on Jamestown Island in Virginia in 1607, the location was considered perfect. They were able to look outwards, along the coastline, for Spanish conquerors and the deep channel allowed the navigation of their ships.

They thought it curious that there were no Indians on the island and it wasn’t too long before they realized why.

The island’s drinking water was polluted and there was very little wild game or any other food sources available.

Some of the settlers made a formidable error by experimenting with eating the plant life that was available. They were especially attracted to this seductively beautiful flower, however, they soon realized that the side affects of ingestion of the Datura were delusions, convulsions, and respiratory failure, which brought about their eventual deaths.

The survivors of those who died always remembered the consequences of eating the beautiful flowers. When, seventy years later, the British soldiers arrived to arrest an uprising of the colony, the settlers slipped Datura leaves into the soldier’s food. The British soldiers did not die, but they did go crazy for eleven days, temporarily giving the colonists the upper hand. As the story is told the plant became known as Jamestown weed, and over the centuries that was condensed to Jimson weed.

There are several well-documented stories of people who have experimented with smoking, brewing, or cooking with Jimson weed that led to coma and eventual death.

Jimsonweed which grows to a height of 2 to almost 6 ½ feet has large, white or violet, trumpet-shaped flowers, and produces a large, spiny fruit to which the common name thorn apple is sometimes applied.

This plant promises a fairyland of delicate beauty, moths, butterflies, long-tongued bees, hummingbirds and magical moonlit nights. It gives rise to some of the plant’s other names, for instance, Angel’s Trumpet, Moon Lily, Moon Flower or Belladonna (beautiful lady).

Scientists regard the plant as a perennial deciduous herb. Which means that it lives for at least three years. It is also extremely poisonous, with the concentration of toxic levels varying from plant to plant. It loses its leaves in the winter.

Members of the nightshade family, all Daturas are poisonous. The dramatic purple Moonflower, Datura inoxia flourishes throughout the South Western area of the United States.

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I have no doubt that this persistent plant will reappear in the Peace Garden in the springtime but this English women has learned the lesson of her forefathers and will leave it alone. :-)

Jimson Weed

Jimson Weed in full bloom

The plant produces a large, spiny fruit to which the common name thorn

apple is sometimes applied.

When the pod seed is dry it then pops open and scatters hundreds of seeds to the four winds.

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Two years ago I was having lunch at a local outdoor restaurant in my community. While sitting next to their flower garden one plant drew my attention -it had a strong green vine with dozens of large white ‘trumpet’ shaped flowers.

I was curious and later I looked it up in my gardening books. There it was – an amazing flower with many names. Jimson Weed is also known as Datura, angel trumpet, and thorn apple.

Last year I saw it again in a garden center. It was late in the season and the plant was on sale in a 6” pot. I purchased it, brought it home but for some reason I never got around to choosing a place in the Peace Garden for this flower. It remained in the pot, went to seed and winter came.

I didn’t give it much thought until this spring, when I noticed many little plants showing up around the garden. I recognized it as the Jimson Weed and pulled most of them up but let two get established. One of them produced just two or three flowers but the other grew to about 3 1/2 feet high and was at least 5 ‘ in circumference. There were over forty blooms on this plant. It was glorious, amazing and a beautiful sight to behold.

It was still blooming strongly until this week when I decided to pull it up and throw it in the rubbish bin. This was an emotional moment for me, as I just don’t have it in me to destroy a flower, especially when it is in full bloom. So why did I do that?

Well, over the summer months I had been reading more about the Jimson Weed and I learned that this seductively beautiful flower has another, more sinister side. If the plant is ingested one can be led to a dark and fearsome netherworld of poison and potential emotional collapse, physical sickness and even death. The onset of symptoms can hit in a half hour according to the Massachusetts Poison Control System. If the seeds or other parts of the plant are ingested, the symptoms kick in within one to four hours.

The chemicals in Datura will block receptors in the brain. The plant contains some of the same chemicals used in antihistamines and drugs used to control psychosis.

These parts of the plant have given rise to alternative names such as Devil’s Trumpet, Deadly Nightshade, Thorn Apple, Mad Apple, Hairy Jimson-weed, Stink Weed, Green Dragon and Locoweed.

After researching the history of this plant I felt torn. I wanted to keep it in my garden but I became concerned. It was then that I discovered that I have something in common with a famous person in history.

In a letter to a friend, who had sent him a sample of the Sacred Datura (Jimson Weed) for the Monticello gardens, Thomas Jefferson said, “…I have so many grandchildren and others who might be endangered by the poison plant, that I think the risk overbalances the curiosity of trying it.

So, there you have it. The reason that I pulled up and discarded this glorious and mystical flower is that I have a one year old grandson who will be playing in the Peace Garden next summer. I cannot expose him to the dangers of the Jimson Weed, which even if one does not ingest the flower it can cause severe rashes on the skin when touched.

Sometime Mother Nature can have her contradictions as she provides us with her visual delights with treacherous consequences. This flower definitely comes under the heading of ‘you can look but don’t touch.’

Dangerous!