Datura wrightii (Western Jimson-weed)

Family: Solanaceae (from the Latin solamen, or “quieting”) a/k/a the Nightshade or Potato Family. Distinguished by its toxicity, this family includes tobacco and some garden variety vegetables, e.g., tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant. Distinguishing characteristics (Morhardt 253) include:

• Tubular, or disk shaped corolla with five lobes
• Radial symmetry with five petals
• Five anthers (usually large), one style and one stigma
• Joined sepals creating a small tubular part with five lobes


Genus: Datura (from Hindi dhatūrā derived from Sanskrit dhattūraḥ). While the USDA lists only ten species within the genus Datura L., (USDA Website) other, lesser-known authorities list over twenty (Dave’s Garden Website). Whatever the case,

Datura is one of the most universally used hallucinogenic and medical plants known to man. Use of the plant spans man’s written history, and appears on every continent in some form (Bean 60).

Identification: It appears more like shrub typically covering several feet with large green leaves and spine covered fruits the size of golf balls. The flowers are huge and trumpet shaped ranging from white to lavender. They often wilt during the day.

Discovery: The closely related Datura stramonium was discovered by Europeans in 1676 when British soldiers were sent to Jamestown to suppress Bacon’s Rebellion. They ate a salad of Datura greens then sojourned on an eleven day bad trip. (Cornell Univ. Website). Apparently there was no evidence of foul play, so essentially, the Brits did it to themselves.

Native Uses, USA: Native Americans, especially in the southwest, including the Cahuilla, used Datura primarily for 1) shamanic visions which imparted onto the shaman special knowledge and power, and 2) male initiation rites during which a boy’s vision would predict his future role in the tribe. It’s not clear if there were safeguards against fraud, e.g., the boy who fabricates self-serving visions. Other uses included a pain-killing paste applied topically to broken bones and swollen joints. Finally, the Navajo used it to prevent miscarriages (Cornell 21).

Ethnobiology: yerba del Diablo and Zombie Cucumber:

Datura is a member of the Northern Mexico hallucinogenic triumvirate: mescalito (mescaline/cactus), yerba del Diablo (Datura/Jimson weed), and humito (Psilocybe/mushroom) described in The Teachings of Don Juan (Castaneda 9). Of the three, Don Juan felt Datura was the most dangerous and “[he] realized she was not for me…”. (ibid 106). Nevertheless, this first-hand “cookbook” gives detailed instructions for DIY gathering, preparation, ingestion, tripping, and “cool down.” For a more objective, scientific approach, see Bean 60 et. seq.).

Finally, and far more deadly, is the Haitian triumvirate: Puff Fish, Poison Dart Frogs, and Datura (a/k/a Zombie’s Cucumber) all used to incapacitate, “zombify” and sometimes kill. “Datura was a violently psychoactive plant well known and widely used in Africa as a stuporific poison by at least some of the people that had been exported to Haiti” (Davis 33-35). Datura made possible involuntary servitude through destroying victims’ will to resist.

Range: The family is found throughout the world’s warmer regions, Datura wrightii is native to southwest deserts in disturbed soil (washes and roadside) under 6,000 feet.

Sources Cited:

Bean, John Lowell & Saubel, Katherine Siva. Temalpakh. Banning, CA: Malki Museum, 1972

Castaneda, Carlos. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. New York: Washington Square Press, 1968

Cornell University, Department of Animal Science, Poisonous Plants Information Database http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/jimsonweed/jimsonweed.html#jamestwn

Cornett, James W. Indian Uses of Desert Plants. Palm Springs: Palm Springs Desert Museum, 1995.

Dave’s Garden Website http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/501087/

Davis, Wade. The Serpent and the Rainbow. New York: Warner Books, 1985

Morhardt, Sia & Morhardt, Emil. California Desert Flowers. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

USDA Website http://plants.usda.gov/java/ClassificationServlet?source=profile&symbol=DATUR&display=63