Angel's Trumpets

These gorgeous garden plants, known properly as Brugmansia, have a rather dubious relative. They are part of the Datura family! Yes, the South American poison and hallucinogenic. The flowers exude a beautiful, narcotic scent, especially at night. The seed capsules of all Datura species are typically the size of a walnut and are covered with thorns that may become quite sharp and spiky as the plant matures. The appearance of these seed-capsules has given rise to the English common name, 'Thornapple'.

The Aztecs used several types of Datura, one of which they called Toloache and is probably the one we know best now, the garden plant Datura innoxia – the first named Angel’s Trumpet. It was used as a painkiller in certain initiation rituals and given as a narcotic to the ritual sacrifices.

Angels Trumpets are small tropical trees that produce dramatic, pendant, trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers. They can grow to10 – 25 feet tall, with flowers 4 – 5 inches across, but they cope well with container growth, where the plants remain around 4-15 feet through pruning and root restriction. Brugmansia comes in shades of white, purple, yellow, creams, lavender and violet, with an occasional yellow to gold type. Several types are very fragrant. Of course, all parts of the plant are poisonous and should be kept away from children and pets: the South American tribes use some Datura as a drug, but by rolling up the leaf and using it as an enema, to avoid its fatal poison, although this can still lead to severe vomiting, cramps and, of course, very bad hallucinations!

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