Stats

Lifespan: Perennial
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Desert
Range: North America
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Toxins
Status: Common

About

Sacred Datura is a low-growing, sprawling perennial native to the American Southwest, famous for its enormous white trumpet-shaped flowers that unfurl at dusk and close by mid-morning. Every part of the plant is highly toxic, yet its seeds contain potent tropane alkaloids that have been used ceremonially by Indigenous peoples for millennia.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Genus: Datura
Species: Datura wrightii