In the Dark | Nightshades

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Lights Out

Nightshades

Datura

What do you do to get out of the heat  of the summer? Go to the movies. Right? So to celebrate Labor Day weekend here is a post with a movie theme.

Drama, Drama, Drama. The Datura puts on a show that is definitely an Academy Award winner. Our local Post office has a bed of Datura planted in an alcove in the front of the building. It is in a northern exposure. The very large, trumpet-shaped flowers unfurl and are showy in the evening as well as the morning. 

Purple Preview

Nightshades
Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia)

Angel Trumpet (Brugmansia)

This is in the Nightshade family, and as with most nightshade plants can be toxic. I have started this from seed for myself and a neighbor successfully by placing it directly in the soil in the spring.
The overall plant has a coarse texture but the flowers are remarkably beautiful. They are sweetly fragrant, about 12 in (30.5 cm) long and shaped like trumpets. The corolla has five points that are slightly recurved. The flowers are usually white but may be yellow or pink and are pendulous, hanging almost straight down.

  

Lighting and Special Effects

Ending Shots

White Flower Datura
Seed Pod

Seed Pod Datura 
Texas Native

This could be a Chick Flick with a big and happy Ending. It is very easy to start from seed.

*Many nightshades are poisonous to people as well as to cattle, horses and sheep. Some municipalities have banned the use of specific nightshades as landscape plants.


Family | Solanaceae




Additional Resources:

• LBWC, Texas
• International Brugmansia Society (IBADS), Florida

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