FLORA OF THE VALLEY : JIMSON WEED
The jimson weed is a member of a plant family that includes tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers and chilies. Unlike its cousins, however, the jimson weed is far from edible.
Growing in hot, sandy locations from central California to Texas and northern Mexico, including many Southern California vacant lots and roadsides, the low plant with the trumpet-shaped white flowers is one of the nightshade family, the solanacae.
Many of the family’s members are poisonous, such as the deadly nightshade, a European variety beloved of murder mystery writers. This poisonous side of the family includes the jimson weed, datura stramonium, one of the plants cowboys nicknamed “loco weed” for its effects on humans, horses and cattle.
The weed produces atropine, which is medically useful in small amounts. But when sampled by drug users, the plants have produced disorientation similar to PCP, impaired vision and motor coordination, paranoid delusions, flushed skin, high fevers, irregular heartbeat, nausea, convulsions and death.
The name is a corruption of “Jamestown weed,” for the settlement in Colonial Virginia where soldiers experimented with the drug in 1676, poisoning themselves.
It is a variety of southwestern thorn apple and produces round, thorny fruits. The flowers may be tinged with violet.
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