A most interesting plant

Alexander

Alexander

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This plant started growing at the side of the house where we recently dug out the ground to paint the side of the house. It planted itself and there are no other ones I know in the neighborhood.

http://www.squarebirds.org/images/plant.jpg

It is quite beautiful. It stands about two feet tall. It has 5-inch white trumpet-shaped flowers with a light violet fringe.

Don't let its good looks fool you. It is an plant with a rich history. It has the distinction of being one of the most ________ plants in the world.

Does anyone know what it is?

Alexander
Board of Directors
Lincolns of Distinction
 
RE: A most interesting plant

I dont what it is, but I have a few of that look just like it my garden they just came out of no where.
 
RE: A most interesting plant

Right - it is in the nightshade family, but it is not a tomato or potato. More specific please. It is deadlier than hemlock and produces bad hallucinations in lower doses.

Alexander
Board of Directors
Lincolns of Distinction
 
RE: A most interesting plant

[div class="dcquote"][strong]Quote[/strong]
Right - it is in the nightshade family, but it is not a tomato or potato. More specific please. It is deadlier than hemlock and produces bad hallucinations in lower doses.AlexanderBoard of Directors Lincolns of Distinction
[/div]

So are they bad to have growing in my garden? I didnt plant them, they just kind of appeared in there one day
 
RE: A most interesting plant

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... and produces bad hallucinations in lower doses.
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could ya snip a little off, and send it my way? ;)

at least now we know what some of our members have been grazing on at times!!!:B :B :B
 
RE: A most interesting plant

It is Datura inoxia. It is also called Angel's trumpet or Devil's weed. Go figure. It has lots of other names. It sometimes called Jimsonweed, though that name is usually given to the close relative Datura stramonium which has sharp toothed leaves. Inoxia is actually more poisonous than stramonium.

The plants contain atropine, scopolamine ans a variety of alkaloids that produce a very unpleasant high. The Aztecs used in initiations and sacrificial rituals. Don Juan mentioned it in his writings as Did Nataniel Hawthorne in the Scarlet Letter.

In 2003, a German youth ingested this plant and wound up cutting off his own genitalia. Unfortunately they could not be reattached.

In medical school we learned about the effects of atropine. The poem for remembering its effects was "blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone."

If that sort of high appeals to you, I can send you a piece. :)

It is grown often as an ornamental plant. There is no danger if you don't eat it. Its relative the tomato, was also grown as an ornamental because people believed it was poisonous until the last century.

http://www.tradewindsfruit.com/thorn_apple.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_innoxia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimson_weed
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache...ura+hemlock+new+york&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5

Alexander
Board of Directors
Lincolns of Distinction
 
RE: A most interesting plant

[div class="dcquote"][strong]Quote[/strong]
[div class="dcquote"][strong]Quote[/strong]... and produces bad hallucinations in lower doses.[/div]could ya snip a little off, and send it my way? ;)at least now we know what some of our members have been grazing on at times!!!:B :B :B
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hahahhaha.....Wait. It said Atropine. If thats what Atropine does to you im never stabbing myself with our Atropine injectors we have over in the desert in chem warfare gear. Well on second thought, that sounds alot more pleasant way to go than drounding in your own lung fluids or suffocating to death because your heart stops beating. I just don't like the blind part. i wanna take as many down with me if i have to go, and i can't shoot what i can't see.
We probably have a super low dose of it in the injectors to just get the heartbeat racing to combat the effect of the nerve agents. Who knows. Hope noone ever has to use them. That is a pretty innocent looking plant...what if you were out weedwhacking at full blast and some of the juices flew up into your eye? Ok, ill drop it now. :) :)

1995 DK Blue Lincoln Mark VIII
1998 DK Blue Chevrolet 1500 P/U
 
RE: A most interesting plant

Medications, which almost all are poisons, depend on dosing for effect. Low dose may beneficial in one way. Higher does may be beneficial in another way. A even higher dose may be fatal. Side effects vary as the dose increases. Some medications have a low therapeutic index and can have toxicity near or in the range of therapeutic effect. That's why drugs like anti-seizure drugs and some antibiotics need to be closely monitored. Some drugs have a high therapeutic index and have toxicity far about the range in which they are therapeutic. With these drugs it is hard to accidentally overdose.

The atropine in the syringe is a dose which will have the desired effect without toxicity.

The lesson with Datura is that natural is not always harmless. Plants do not make medications for the benefit of people. They do so mainly to prevent animals from eating them, since they are unable to run. Many people mistakenly believe that you cannot be harmed by herbal medications. This is dangerous belief. The body cannot distinguish natural from artificial. A natural poison will kill you as surely as an artificial one.

Herbal medications vary in their active ingredients depending on climate, soil, water, insects eating them, processing and storage. The US government needs to put in place standards like they have in Germany so that the public knows exactly what they are getting in their herbal medicines.

Alexander
Board of Directors
Lincolns of Distinction
 
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