Beautiful long white flower plant. What is it? Answer: Datura. TOXIC & DANGEROUS!

What is this plant growing wild in my yard? It has these beautiful long white flowers which stay like this even during the night. Doesn't have any fragrance, not that I can detect.

It seems to like direct sunlight outside. I know this coz when I brought it inside after replanting it in a container, it didn't like it. So i moved it back outside where is started do well again. No seeds yet, or maybe I don't know how to spot them.

I like the looks of this plant. So I wish to propagate it. But what is it called?

 

Moonflower is what I think.

 

This is a type of datura and is pretty toxic too.

 

@Odif is correct! This looks like an Indian Datura to me, also known as poisoned thorny apple.

It is an EXTREMELY POISONOUS PLANT. All parts of this are toxic. It is dangerous to have around pets and young children - My advice is to please remove it from your house ASAP!

See this link below.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura

 

YIKES!!!!!!!!!

 

Just get rid of it as quickly as you can - Because in any garden this planet is only an accident just waiting to happen...

Inspect the top soil of the area where it grew. If you see any of it's seeds, pick them up with a gloved hand. Then set fire to them all, along with the whole plant, (and don't breathe in any smoke). Don't throw it in the trash, as wherever the trash will end up - It might start growing over there too.

This is a very invasive plant. So if it grew in your garden, then there must be others growing nearby also. Therefore I suggest you also make your neighbors aware of this dangerous plant. And everybody carry out a detailed search.

Destroy this planet and every seedling of it that you can find.

 

Search for the adult mother plant somewhere. Then destroy it. It will look something like this. It has to be nearby, otherwise how can a Datura plant spontaneously grow in your garden?




This is what it's seeds look like.

 

Anita, please edit the tittle of this thread, or put in the keywords mentioning Datura - So that this post doesn't get forgotten and wasted.

Now that we have correctly identified this danger. Please make it so that anyone who needs to learn about this, can easily do so with the help of a simple search.

Since you started this thread, you will see an option for adding tags at the top of the page. We can't, but you can. So mention Datura in the tags.

It will make it very easy for the search engines to pick up. You never know who this might help in the future...

 

Thank you S_H, i didn't know these plants were poisonous.

 

@S-H Aye aye captain! FAB!
Tags added and title updated.

I don't have many neighbours, coz this area is newly developed. But tomorrow I and my husband will go out and look.

Thanks a lot.

 

Good Anita, excellent job!

It's actually not all that bad as a plant. The flowers are beautiful too. But around pets and young children, the potential for harm is very high... Actually, animals too by instinct know that such plants need to be avoided. However children shouldn't be around this.

All parts of this plant are poisonous, but flowers and it's fruit, and specially it's seeds - Are unbelievably toxic... But here too, one plant can turn out to be only mildly toxic, while another Datura plant looking exactly the same growing next to it can be ultra toxic. So no way to judge it's potential for harm. Strange I know, but that's how it is with this plant

Death from Datura is not a pleasant one. As it causes heart arrhythmia. With respiratory collapse, and hallucinations too. It is because of this hallucination factor, that this planet is abused by ill informed teenagers. They want to experiment with it, like a recreational drug - But as I said so before, the toxicity of this plant is not consistent. One Datura plant can be only mildly toxic, while another grown from the same batch of seeds can be unbelievably poisonous.

So this is how most fatalities occur from this plant. When teenagers start abusing it... Therefore it's best to get rid of it from urban areas altogether. Just take no chances with it. Because there are other plants which are just as beautiful - Without such harmful potential.

 

Curious... Do you have any experience with ham radio communications? I ask because F.A.B stands for "Following As Broadcast". I haven't heard this in almost 30 years, when internet didn't exist. And the world only had amateur ham radios to gossip with...

Of course, soon the internet became available to everyone, (during the mid 1990s). So such way of communicating has since been forgotten.

 

Just found these interesting videos about this planet on YouTube.

 

LOL! No. LOL! I was watching Thunderbirds with my girl, (she loves watching that). They always say FAB after every command. LOL! I have no experience with radio or anyhting like that. LOL!

That second video of the boy falling over gave me goosebumps! Very scary stuff. I didn't realize that our plant world could be so lethal. We did go out on our regular early morning jogging, so we tried looking for the mother plant of Datura. But haven't found anyhting yet. Neighbors are pretty had to get hold of, as we don't have many. However we will keep on trying.

My is mother visiting us now. I told her everything I learned about this plant. She said don't destroy it, but ask the university if they would like to have it for study. She has spent her entire adult life over there. She is sure they will have some use for it, (if it's a rare plant). So today we will take our Datura to them. Maybe they can tell us something more about this plant. Who knows? But thank you all, specially @S-H for making me aware of this hidden danger.

I'm still getting goosebumps, just from remembering that video.

 

You're welcome. I'm just glad that @Odif and I were able to correctly identify this - I think it's a great idea donating your Datura plant to the university.

I actually forgot about this completely. That botany researchers are always on the lookout for exotic plants. So who knows, maybe they will come up with an antidote for the poison that's in Datura? Or maybe it will help medicinal researchers with something? We may never know - But it's a damn good idea your mother had about donating this plant to the university!