Friday 9 September 2011

Datura

A large and still burgeoning bush of this stuff - it's an Aquamarine Datura - has burst through the pavement round the corner from my house. It's rather lovely, in an un-English kind of way - and it is, of course, highly toxic, like all its kind (see under Toxicity here, and tremble). Should I alert the authorities? Or harvest the seeds (you never know when they might come in handy)? Are the plants finally taking over? I blame John Wyndham.

11 comments:

  1. Isn't Datura a hallucinogen? any students on your street you can sell it to?

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  2. The fruit of this plant is a homoeopathic remedy for use in acute mental illness. Here's a snippet from Materia Medica -
    'The disposition resembles a genuine mania, distinguished by loquacity, hallucinations and ridiculous attitudes and gestures; the hallucinations completely possess the patient.'
    I wonder what you think you'll be using it for Nige?

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  3. 'ridiculous attitudes and gestures' eh? Sounds ideal...
    Wikipedia doesn't exactly sell it as a recreational drug - 'No other psychoactive substance has received as many "train wreck" (that is, severely negative experience) reports as has Datura'...

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  4. "...has burst through the pavement round the corner from my house..," you write:

    1) Our balcony last year sported three different plants that were poisonous including rhubarb and a huge castor bean plant. I told people "One bean can kill a man," to which my husband gently, finally, objected, "Why 'man'...?"

    2) My favourite doorway is in Hampshire: an 18th century cottage built for a royal mistress, with its own ghost, incidentally. The current, very old gentleman-owner noticed and nourished a delicate but bushy plant that spouted up right in the middle of the bottom door frame. It became so tall & wide that he had to use his back door. But, it was lovely, and then, feeling welcomed, flowered.

    I love him for his kindness to nature, despite its inconveniencing him.

    ReplyDelete
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