Brugmansia suaveolens

Common Name: Angels Trumpet

Family: Solanaceae

Country of Origin: southeast Brazil

Description: [syn. Datura Gardneri Hook.f.]

Shrub or small tree, 6-15 feet, glabrous to minutely pubescent; leaves ovate to narrowly elliptic, entire; flowers large, 8-12 inches long, odding but not completely pendulous, calyx 2-5 toothed, slightly inflated, persistent and generally enclosing the fruit; corolla white, more campanulate than trumpet shaped, constricted for a short distance beyond the calyx, teeth 1.5 inches long or less, flaring but not recurved, anthers connivent; fruit fusiform, 4-6 inches long, somewhat rugose.

There are no herbarium collections of any species of this genus made from confirmed wild plants. No botanist specialising in this genus has ever reported seeing wild plants of any species. (Verbal) Reports by non-specialist botanists of the occurrence of ‘wild’ plants are either misidentifications (usually of Datura), or misinterpretation of remnants or localised escapes from cultivation, usually along creeks and occurring by vegetative propagation from stem fragments. In all such instances investigated in Ecuador and Colombia, the plants are of the anthropogenic hybrid Brugmansia x candida (Hay et al. 2012: 172-177). It is quite clear that such instances do not represent self-sustaining sexually reproducing populations.³

The complete lack of evidence of fruit dispersal or spontaneous seedlings, combined with the presence of large numbers of fruits containing viable seed, suggests their dispersers are extinct. Hence, all the species should best be regarded as extinct in the wild.³

Uses: Principal active biochemicals are the tropane alkaloids hyoscyamine, atropine, and scopolamine. The seeds of Brugmansia contain the highest concentration of alkaloids.

USDA Zone: 10b

Accession #: 199200529

Accession Date: 1992-12-31 00:00:00

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 1319

Quantity: 1

Source: Unknown

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Subclass: euasterid I

Order: Solanales

Family: Solanaceae

SubFamily: Solanoideae

Tribe: Datureae