Datura metel.
Angel’s or Devil’s trumpet is widely cultivated worldwide.
A shrubby plant 1 to 2 m high whose purple tinged stems have only a few hairs.
The alternate, often purplish, ovate leaves are up to 16 cm long and almost as wide.
The edge is slightly wavy or may have coarse teeth.
There are almost no hairs on them.
The solitary axillary flowers, up to 20 cm long, are varied.
The calyx, up to 7 cm long, has 5 (6 – 9) lobes up to 1.5 cm long.
The trumpet-shaped corolla has a tubular base and a flaring top.
Flowers can have a single, double or triple corolla.
Colours include purple, white, yellow or red.
The fruit are capsules 3 to 4 cm across.
At the top is a cup-like rim formed from the calyx tube.
They are covered by blunt tubercles a few mms high rather than spines.
Datura metel “Fastuosa”.
A cultivar known as the Double Purple Angel’s trumpet among other names.
The 1.5 m high plants have flowers up to nearly 20 cm long.
The simple purplish-black leaves are on shiny, deep purple stems.
The corollas are white or pale purple inside and have a deep purple exterior.
The 5 (to 9) lobes have thin points up to 2.5 cm long.
J.F.
