Datura+stramonium

 **//Datura stramonium//** //**History:**// Datura stramonium is native of India and Central America. Datura stramonium was used as a mystical sacrament. Aboriginal Americans have used this plant in sacred ceremonies. In some tribe  was involved in the ceremonies of manhood. The Sadhus also used datura as a spiritual tool, smoking it with cannabis in their traditional chillums. It was also widely used by the Magyar spiritual leaders since ancient times. A summer annual with white to purple flowers and a distinctive odor. A weed of agronomic crops found throughout the US except for the Northwest. //**Medicinal Use:**// There was a time when stramonium, a drug obtained from the leaves and seeds of Datura stramonium, was used medicinally. The alkaloid was known as daturine. From the seeds was made extractum stramonii. The tinctura stramonii was made from the leaves. Stramonium was used to relax the smooth muscle of the bronchial tubes, and thus it was used to treat an asthmatic's bronchial spasm. //**Plant Identification:**//  **Stem:** Very stout, hollow, smooth, branching, green or more often purple, with inconspicuous hairs. //**Pictures of Datura stramonium:**//
 * Weed description:**
 * Leaves:** 3-8 inches long, 6 inches wide, ovate, without hairs, on long stout petioles. Margins with large triangular teeth. Leaves emit an unpleasant odor when touched.
 * Roots:** Thick and branched taproot system.
 * Fruit:**  An egg-shaped capsule about 1 to 2 inches long covered with prickles, and splits into 4 segments when mature.
 *  Flowers:** 2-5 inches long with colors from white to puple and funnel shaped. Individual flowers come on short stalks that arise from leaf or branch axils. Sepals enclose the lower part of the flower.

//Datura// //stramonium//
 * Classification: **
 * Kingdom || //Plantae// – Plants ||
 * Subkingdom || //Tracheobionta// – Vascular plants ||
 * Superdivision || //Spermatophyta// – Seed plants ||
 * Division || //Magnoliophyta// – Flowering plants ||
 * Class || //Magnoliopsida// – Dicotyledons ||
 * Subclass || //Asteridae// ||
 * Order || //Solanales// ||
 * Family || //Solanaceae// – Potato family ||
 * Genus || //Datura// L. – jimsonweed ||
 * Species || //Datura// //stramonium// – jimsonweed ||
 * Species || //Datura// //stramonium// – jimsonweed ||

Websites: http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/datst.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium