Jimsonweed-Nightshade Family
Jamestown weed, thornapple
Datura stramonium
Characteristics. Jimsonweed is considered a native and is
typically found in dryer areas including vacant lots, rangeland and waste
areas. All parts of the plants are toxic
resulting in human poisonings every year in the
Identfying
Characteristics. Datura is
an annual shrubby plant that
typically reaches a height of 0.6 to 1.5 meters. Its stems and
leaves are covered
with short and soft grayish hairs, giving the whole plant a
grayish appearance. It has ellipticentire-edged leaves
with pinnate venation.[1] All
parts of the plant emit a foul odor similar to rancid peanut butter when
crushed or bruised, although most people find the fragrance of the flowers to
be quite pleasant when they bloom at night.
The flowers are white, trumpet-shaped,
12–19 cm (4.75-7.5 in) long. They first grow upright, and later incline
downward. It flowers from early summer until late fall.
The fruit is an egg-shaped spiny capsule,
about 5 cm in diameter. It splits open when ripe, dispersing the seeds.
Another means of dispersal is by the fruit spines
getting caught in the fur of
animals, which then carry the fruit far from the mother plant. The seeds
have hibernation capabilities, and can last for
years in the soil. The seeds, as well as the entirety of this plant, are
also hallucinogenic, but have a high probability
of overdose.
The flowers are large (3 to 5 inches long), white to
purplish in color (depending on variety).
Fruiting bodies are 1 to 2 inches, egg-shaped, fleshy and covered with
spine-like structures.
Toxicity. All parts
of Datura plants contain dangerous levels of poison and may be
fatal if ingested by humans and other animals, including livestock and pets. In
some places it is prohibited to buy, sell or cultivate Datura plants.
All Datura species contain the highly toxic alkaloidsatropine
, hyoscine (scopolamine), and hyoscyamine. According to Hernández, the Aztecs called the planttoloatzin, and used it long before the Spanish conquest of Mexico for many therapeutic purposes, such aspoulticesIt has also been planted throughout the world as
an ornamental
plant for its attractive large leaves, large white flowers, and
distinctive thorny fruit. However, the plant is now considered an invasive species in
several locations. For example, because of the similarity of its life cycle to that of cotton,
it is a pest in cotton fields. It is also a potential seed contaminant.
Sacred
Datura. In Native American tribes of the
southwest, as is often the case with tribes elsewhere, in rites of passage, a
young person coming of age would fast and pray for days in order to purify
himself. In some cases, the initiate might be isolated or left in the wild
alone. At the appropriate time, a Medicine person or tribal spiritual elder
that would nominally be called by others than Native Americans, a Shaman, might accompany the initiate to a holy
place, possibly a mountain top or cave, and a tea would be made from the roots,
leaves and even the seeds from the prickly seed pod of a plant called Sacred Datura. The individual would drink this tea and wait for visions,
and the initiate would definitely have visions.
Besides
those sacred rites of passage, Datura, which is referred to in some cultures as la Yerba Del Diablo, but known
to the Chumash people of California, the Mohave, Yuma, Cahuilla, Zuni and
others as toloache from the Aztec toloatizn, "to incline the
head" (and the person administering the Datura as a tolachero), has been used to
hex and to break hexes, to produce sleep and induce dreams, and for protection
from evil. It has also been used for divination, to find one's Totem
Animal, to allow one to see ghosts, for communing with birds, for
long hunts and strength, for sharper vision, for sorcery and to increase
supernatural powers as in Aushadhis, the awakening of the supernormal
perceptual states through the use of certain drugs and herbs. Like other
tropane-containing plants that have been used historically for so called Flying Ointments, Sacred Datura has been used
in certain rituals related to inducing the ability to fly through eating or
drinking and sometimes an ointment (see). Datura is still widely used in the
SACRED DATURA: Nightshade Family
[Solanaceae] is found in
western
The
tea from Datura is extremely hallucinogenic. The hallucinogenic effects are
reported to be stronger than Peyote, Psyillicibin, or LSD. However, Datura is
also very toxic and can cause permanent psychosis. Solanaceous plants such as
Sacred Datura contain relatively high concentrations of tropane alkaloids,
primarily Atropine, Hyoscyamine, and Scopolamine, the primary alkaloid being
Scopolamine. It is apparently Scopolamine that produces the hallucinogenic
effects. It induces an intoxication followed by narcosis in which
hallucinations occur during the transition state between consciousness and
sleep.
When
Datura is used in a Native American ritual, it is always under the guidance of
an individual of certain tribal spritual resolve such as a Medicine person or
tribal elder. These experts on the use of the plant know what other plants to
add in order to neutralize the harmful effects. They also know how much to administer
and when and where to pick the plants, such as age, season, time of year,
whether under a full moon or no moon at all. Chemical constituents and levels vary
greatly from plant to plant, time of year, and from one area to another just
generally, but especially so if the plants are obtained through ritual or from
a spot known for having special powers like the Sun Dagger site
on Fajada Butte in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, holy places of some sort such as Vortexes, or sacred grounds. The plants are
very toxic, poisonous and lethal, especially if consumed in quanities unmetered
by someone not versed in their safe administration. They can, however, when
properly dealt with, produce the end result sought after, and quite adequately
so, in the spiritual realm.
Although
typically connected with Peyote in the minds of the general public, one of the
formost users of Datura was Carlos Castaneda who claimed its use as an apprentice
to a Yaqui Indian shaman-sorcerer named Don Juan
Matus that is said to
have studied under a Diablero.
In
that there are a number of species of Datura there is some confusion as to what Datura
Castaneda may have used. According to Castaneda in THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge a shaman-sorcerer has an Ally
contained in the Datura plants commonly known as jimson weed. Don Juan called
that ally by one of the Spanish names of the plant, yerba
As
for the "separate" Daturas, more or less on an official basis --- but
not necessarily on a common basis as the names, species and terms are usually
intermixed (although it must be said, even plant taxonomist disagree amongst
themselves whether D.
stramonium and D. inoxia are different species while D. inoxia and D.
metaloides are considered
alternate names for the same species). Usually, D. stramonium is most often the Datura species referred
to as jimson weed, while D. metaloides (also sometimes D. wrightii) is usually applied
to Sacred Datura, and D.
inoxia is Toloache. Don
Juan's own plants belonged to the species inoxia, however there was no correlation between THAT fact and any
differences that may have existed between any of the species of datura accessible to him.