Some kind of Voodoo

If you're travelling in the caribbean there's a decent chance you'll come across one of these growing on a roadside, rubbish heap or other area of disturbed ground. Its Datura innoxia.

Now you may well stop to admire these lovely angel trumpet flowers but you're probably best to leave it there. You see Datura are known for their powerful toxins. I can remember being told of a man who tied a donkey beneath a tree datura only to find it wouldn't wake up.

This species is also known as thorn apple or concombre-zombi because of these spectacular fruits. Spectacular but lethally toxic. In fact it is widely believed rogue voodoo practitioners use a preparation of Datura to damage victims in the process known as zombification....as in zombies. yes really. There's a load of detail about this utterly horrifying practice (3 days in a coffin alive and aware but unable to move!?) and other medicinal uses of the genus here but to summarise lets admire from a distance, eh?

For those of you confused by the use of Datura and Brugmansia by books and garden centres and catalogues I understand the basic rule is Datura flowers upwards whereas Brugmansia flowers hang down. The toxity is an issue with all species so do be careful if you grow these.