What is this Please!

I have recently started useing a greenhouse and have planted a Vine in some open earth at the rear, while I was seeding up some peppers and chillies, I assume that one of the seeds has landed in the earth as a shoot appeared, I decided to leave this and see what turned up.
It grew and grew, and when I returned back prom a two week holiday I was shocked to see the size it had grown. Please see image, could you please let me know what it is? and what part is edible? and which is the seed for the future? The part that confuses me is the large prickly growth that is between each stem.

That is the infamous Jimson Weed. It is poisonous and quite prolific. http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/jimsonweed/jimsonweed.html There are several variants but this is the most prevalent.

Yep, Jimson Weed. Remember that old Gene Autry song - "where the longhorn cattle feed on the lowly Jimson Weed, I'm back in the saddle again" - I've always wondered why it didn't poison them. Are cows immune to it?

The kind that grew wild all over Los Angeles (before LA was covered in housing tracts, lawns, and swimming pools) was more a greyish-green than this one. Probably a slightly different variety out there.

Karen

10 years ago I actually paid good money to buy this obnixous thing sold under the name of Datura. I did this because I have one white version that has wonderful blue green rich foilage and large white flowers that smell like perfume in the evening. My white one is non invasive . I bought one described as being a fancy double purple and planted fifty seeds and got about 50 plants which I planted two of and gave the rest away.
The next year I must have had500 and began, chopping,pulling,spraying,stomping,and a lot of cussing. I also recieved death threats and a freak heavy rain foiled a fire bombing lol. My advise is pull it and cremate it and dump it's ashes on someones property you don't like ha ha . Ernie

Ernie,

Sometimes it depends on where it is growing. In your flower bed it could be a problem. Remembering them from those long ago days in Los Angeles, the Jimson Weed was never that invasive, just one here and there -- maybe because no one was watering them regularly and so only a few of the seeds grew into full-sized plants.

I have some datura seeds I am going to sow on my hillside. If it grows all over the place, that will be fine. In fact, I have a lot of self-seeding, invasive-type seeds I am going to plant there. I'm going to let them duke it out with the ugly grass that is there now and hope the grass loses. Somebody said: A weed is just a flower in the wrong place.

Karen

Thankyou for your fast responce, I trust your experience and knowledge, THIS is one plant that is dead!

Best regards CRAGGY.

pick it out its a weed

Glendalekid wrote;"I've always wondered why it didn't poison them. Are cows immune to it?"

My cows won't touch it. I had read before I got them that datura is highly toxic to cattle, so imagine my horror when I saw it in the pasture. I ran wildly around digging the stuff before the cows could find it. Then in the late fall...I looked out at the well eaten grass, and there, in all their glory, were a bunch of "new" datura, flowers and all. The cows don't eat it. I have doubts about letting the new calf in there, but evenyually I'll have to :). Hopefully his mama will teach him good from bad, at least in this case.

Jimsonweed. Don't pick it out! The flowers smell so good. I wish that were weedy around here. Instead we have Bittersweet Nightshade and a few other nightshades. If you do decide to keep it make sure no animals go near it. My dog doesn't go near it. I put my Guinea Pig up to it (don't worry I wasn' t going to let him get it) to see if he would try to get it, but he didn't he tried to get away. I did this with other nightshades too incuding Peppers, Tomatoes and Potatoes.

Craggy-
Jimson Weed / Datura does smell heavenly, but I've only ever potted them in containers as they are very invasive and will take over (think Kudzu vine LOL). There are many types, including pretty doubles and triples in purple, white and yellow.
If you decide to keep it, my advice is to pull ALL of those seed pods off before they dry out and disperse their goodies. Although you'll definitely get some coming up just from the established roots in the ground it will cut down on regrowth a little bit. I'd recommend gloves as well, because the spiny points are sharp, and some people get an allergic reaction from the sap.
Samantha

I planted one in the ground so far and 2 potted one. The potted ones have 3 seed pods and I collected one. Yeah I will make sure they don't spread. It is amazing how they smell. Such rank leaves but such a heavenly flower, I'm going to miss it in the winter.

catmad,

The horses next door to us won't touch it either. Those horses are so hungry -- there is no green anywhere in the "pasture", totally brown dirt -- that you can see their ribs from 300 ft away -- yet the two Jimson weed plants are hale and happy. Apparently, horses and cows know better than the song writer did. Ha, ha.

I can hear you already. Why won't anyone do anything about the starving horses? We've tried. My daugher even signed an animal abuse complaint because the deputy you saw the horses' condition wouldn't sign it. The long and short is that no one will do anything because the owner of the property is a shirt-tail relative of the county high sheriff.

Karen

Hey glendalekid did you try calling the MSPCA?

Sparisi,

The SPCA and the Humane Society are the same here under the auspices of the Humane Society. We did call them. A Humane Society person came out and took photos and said that the horses on a 10-1 scale were at best a 3 and a couple of them were below 1.

The horses broke out of the pasture and a deputy had to be called. The deputy admitted the horses were starving, but he refused to sign the complaint. He insisted that my daughter sign it, which she did.

Another deputy later went out to an address he was directed to by our neighbor. He was shown a barn full of food and a bunch of well-fed horses. However, it was not the correct property. Wouldn't you think that a deputy sheriff could read the report and know it was the wrong address? Hmmm? Since our address was on the report, why didn't he come talk to us?

After that the woman from the Humane Society dropped the problem like a hot potato, even though she knew the deputy had gone to the wrong place as she's the one who told us. That's when we got to asking around town and found out that apparently he is related to the high sheriff in some way. We decided that the Humane Society person had backed off because she found out about this "connection" and the deputies already knew.

So,yeah, we've got nowhere to go with this.

Karen

Sparisi-
You really gotta try bringing your containers inside before the first killing frost :-) I tried that with some of my flowers last year, and had Marigolds, Celosia, Morning Glories and Cosmos until deep into winter and by that time it was time for wintersowing and starting tomatoes inside- nothing like year-round gardening! I put them in my sunniest window and they did very well. It's amazing what deadheading and fertilizer will do for ya!
Samantha

Glendalekid wrote;"the owner of the property is a shirt-tail relative of the county high sheriff."

Being is smalltown SC, I understand. There was a similar situation when I lived in Florida, also with horses. No-one could do anything, they stayed just barely within the law. We know they had "connections", because there was always food and clean water when the inspectors showed up. The inspectors couldn't do anything about the fact that the food disappeared just after they did.

Odd thing began to happen, tho. Those horses just started escaping at night. They were found in the late morning/afternoon on other neighborhood properties, and the guy kept having to reimburse his neighbors for the "thefts" his horses committed. He finally sold them to one of the neighbors, to cover the cost of the feed they stole.....:)

Margo

glendalekid,

Did you try writing to any of the local newspapers?

You should also contact all the local news station they love stories like this.

gelndalekid,

Yeah, I will make sure of that. Probably somewhere around September or October to be safe. Thanks for telling me though. This is my first year growing Brugmansias and Daturas.

catmad, Sparisi1122,

Glad to hear the FL horse problem got cleared up okay. I don't think these horses belong to this fellow. He does not live on the property. I think they are being boarded for out-of-state owners.

The county sheriff's FIL is very wealthy and influential. No reason to believe the "fix" is not in with the news media good ol' boys, too.

My daughter works part-time at a local food market. She hits up every deputy that comes through her checkstand, asking about why nothing is being done on her complaint. We think she has finally found one who is not afraid of the sheriff. We shall see.

Karen