Datura inoxia - Part Two

An update on my Datura garden... I have continued my obsession with this wonderful shamanistic plant. Pay special attention to the honeybees and moths that are attracted to the blossoms. I have become quite skilled a growing these flowers and enjoy the pleasure of this grand flowering plant! I think I will sell this strain of seeds as they grow to impressive size and height. The blooms are at least eight inched long and the diameter is five to six inches... A breathtaking flower! They do so grow very well in Tennessee.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Datura
• inoxia
• Flower
• Moonflower
• Thorn
• Apple
• Jimsonweed
• Tennessee
• Moth
• Tobacco
• hornworm
• Bees
• Garden

[Shewwler]

It is NOT vital for the tomato/tobacco hornworm to pollinate the blooms as there are other insects that will be happy to explore the blossoms... As a matter of fact, the plant family that both tomatoes and datura are in is one of the larger ones so food availability is not an issue... There will be no loss of worms should one wish to prevent an infestation on your personal garden of flowers...

[VallartaMikey]

To CombineWizard: re: your comment, Datura inoxia and Datura wrightii are two names for the same species of datura.

[afroblue]

a nice plant to look at. I took a bicicle trip to a sweatlodge at a city nearby and i saw the plant grow at the side of the road so i decided to eat the flower.... ihad heard storys about it and why not to use it, but well, what better teacher than experience. I told this to a medicine man and he told me that this plant was toxic and showed me another datura with a smaller flower, he said to use it when i wanted to meditate.

[Automeris2]

@CombineWizard You're right about the caterpillars and moths! Bees help, but the flowers still do better with moths. Too many will not bloom as long by day. It's the night pollinators that get the majority.

[Automeris2]

Nevermind seeds [I have plenty], but I'm offering to buy Manduca moth pupae! $2 for the tomato and $1.50 for the tobacco. Your huge plant can easily feed out 20+ cats to full size, but having other nightshades, even weed ones, really helps. I've NEVER seen a true tomato worm in TX or OK, but did see just one in my own garden, in northwest KS, back in 1980.

[CombineWizard]

@Shewwler That's good. Down here, there has been the typical shortage of honeybees, including a decline of the now naturalized African x Euro honeybee. Manduca hawkmoths have also severely declined, although they were never as common as many other moth species.

I have 4 overwintering M. sexta pupae. Yes, I would welcome more, but if you'd be so inclined to capture several young M. quinquemaculata larvae, feed them out, I would happily BUY the pupae for the effort.

[CombineWizard]

I believe that is actually Datura wrightii. yes, those moths do a far better job at pollinating than the bees and will go right down the throats of the flowers. They also capture the night-only blooms. It is vital to allow their larvae [hornworms] to graze the abundant foliage so they can become the next generation of pollinating moths. It's called mutualism.

[natew1990]

this is also my favorite plant. so mesmerising