Common Names
Jimsonweed, apple of Peru, apple Peru, devil’s trumpet, Jamestown weed, jimsonweed datura, mad apple, stink apple, stinkweed, stinkwort, stramonium, thorn apple.

Description
An ill-scented annual weed that grows 1 to 5 feet in height. Leaves are 4 to 6 inches long, broad, unevenly and largely toothed. Flowers are long, tubular, pale blue in leaf axils or stem forks. Plant produces large prickly capsules as fruit.

Flowering Period
July to October.

Habitat
Forest edge, fields, roadsides, and waste ground.

Harvest
Leaves and tops when plant is in flower; seeds when mature.

Uses
This extremely poisonous plant is used as an antispasmodic, antiasthmatic, and anodyne sedative. The dried leaves are frequently mixed with saltpeter and burned in a treatment for asthma. In Appalachia, a poultice made from blossoms is used to treat wounds and to kill pain; also, dried leaves are smoked in a pipe to relieve asthma. In the Southwest, the plant is used by Zuni Indians as a hallucogenic. En Europe, where the plant has been known for centuries, it is used to treat pulmonary disease, nervous afflictions, and nymphomania. And legend has it that the Delphic Oracle inhaled smoke from burning Datura leaves to induce visions.