Thanks Tanay for this detailed info. I was planning to grow this on my terrace garden atop the centralised kitchen in MBPT.
But I guess will shift it now to another location. It is so beautiful, cant let it go. Is it poisonous to birds too? The maali in the garden from where i got the cutting told us it wasn't. And i was curious. Thanks once again. Regards Preeti On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 9:53 AM, tanay bose <[email protected]> wrote: > Dear Preeti j, > > > There is nothing to get ashamed of and feel you are ignorant. Many members > of the group do have a passion for floristic diversity of India but may not > know the scientific name or not aware of the botanical aspect of the plants. > It is a common aspect of this group that we welcome all people with the > vision to respect and love plant. You may be not aware of the botanical name > but made the lovely effort to take its photo and post it out in this group > where other members can see it and if possible identify it (scientifically). > Your as well as contribution from all members are invaluable for us and will > help us all to reach our goal to create Eflora of India. Contributions from > all members have made this group largest of its kinds in India and probably > of the world with 1241 members. > > Both Brugmansia & Datura are in the same family of Solanaceae. > > Brugmansia grow into trees, produce brown wood and are perennial in warmer > climates. 99% of their flowers point down and are usually called Angels > Trumpet. They produce green bean like seed pods. > > Datura are annual bushes (except in climates with no frost) and do not > produce brown wood. Their stems and trunks are almost always green. Their > flowers point up and are mistakenly called Angels Trumpet but are actually > Devils Trumpet. They produce round; spiky or bumpy seed pods that can > literally explode when ripe throwing seeds all over the place if the pod is > not well hydrated. > > Daturas are most easily propagated via seed and come true from seed. > Brugmansias do not come true from seed and are very easily propagated via > cutting. > > "Datura is annual bushes (except in climates with no frost) and do not > produce brown wood. Their stems and trunks are almost always green." > Some varieties have BLACK stems and trunks (very gothic-looking). > > Datura as a genus has much more variation between species than Brugsmansia. > Most Brugsmansia look very alike with the exception of Brugsmansia sanguinea > and vulcanicola. Datura species on the other hand have several different > growth habits and may be low lying, spreading, or upright with green to > purple stems. Several species have hairy stems and leaves especially Datura > ferox. The most interesting Datura species I grow is Datura ceratocaula, a > semi-aquatic species from Mexico and South America that has an unbranched > stem with small leaves only at the apical portion. > > Datura is a short lived perennial down here, and lives three to four years, > and does produce some brown woody trunks and stems. However, they will never > get more than about 4 feet tall, no matter how much you feed them. There are > some varieties of datura that actually sprawl. > > *All parts of both are extremely toxic.* The roots, stems, flowers, leaves > and seeds contain the chemicals atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine in > varying concentrations. If you have toddlers or pets that like to sample > plants you must take special care to make sure they cannot come in contact > in anyway with either plant. If ingested it could kill them. > > *When handling either, make it a point not to touch your face, eat or > handle food until you have washed your hands.* There have been a few posts > in the last few months describing the symptoms of Solanaceae poisoning. If > you have ever experienced headaches, confusion or vision problems after > working with your Brugmansia or Datura, you have inadvertently poisoned > yourself. Most of the time you will not connect the two. I have poisoned > myself unknowingly harvesting Datura seeds when I had open cuts on my > fingers or neglected to wash my hands right after harvesting the seeds. > > (Ref: Garden Web) > > > > Regards > > Tanay > > -- > Tanay Bose > +91(033) 25550676 (Resi) > 9830439691(Mobile) > > > -- Preeti Patil 9819197071 'To see things in the seed, that is genius' - Lao tzu 'There are no barriers that cannot be bridged, except the ones men create in their own minds.' - Zen saying -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/indiantreepix?hl=en.
