Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Mother's Sacred Datura......, 0 by roadrunner

roadrunner wrote:
Mother Natures' that is! This grows wild around here...only I just knew it as "Jimson Weed" until I saw the contest and Dave's post. It is very petty, so will transplant some to the yard area. Here is what I have learned of this plant:

Sacred Datura or Jimson Weed Datura meteloides

Nightshade or Potato Family (Solanaceae)

Grows to 4 foot high, blooms April - November
Found in washes and roadside for deserts to mesas at elevations from 1,000 to 6,000'
A perennial herb. The flowers open in erly evening and close the following day when struck by the sun's rays. All parts of the plant are extremely posionous if ingested.
This was one of the most important medicinal plants to early Native Americans. The flowers and leaves are used in a bath to make an effective external analgesic for acute arthritic pain or pain from a fall, sports injuries, or overwork. (Warning: leave the bath BEFORE you become to relaxed) Also soaked in lard to make a salve to apply to inflamed hemorrhoids, as well as boils, carbuncles, and other hot, acute skin swellings. Moistened leaves are applied to temples to relieve headaches and seeds soaked in tallow or kerosene are applied to body lice. Smoke from burning leaves is used to relax bronchial spasms in asthmatic attacks and temporary relief of swelling from sinus infections.
Looks like "good medicine...and bad"!: Jo