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Deadly☠️ To avoid

🌺 Datura (Jimsonweed)

Datura stramonium · Solanaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it'Prickly apple, mind up in smoke': the spiky fruit warns of a poison that clouds your head before stopping your heart.
Datura (Jimsonweed) — Datura stramonium

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A large annual of wastelands and rubble, recognizable by its large erect trumpet-shaped white flowers and especially its spike-covered fruit—a prickly capsule the size of a walnut that earned the plant the nickname 'thorn apple'. The entire plant, especially the seeds, contains potent anticholinergic alkaloids and is responsible for voluntary recreational poisonings, sometimes fatal, among teenagers.

  1. egg-shaped fruit covered in spines, opening into 4 valves at maturity to release small black seeds
  2. white (sometimes purplish) erect trumpet-shaped flower, 6 to 10 cm
  3. large, oval leaves with irregularly toothed edges, foul smell when crushed
  4. stout stem, branching in a fork
Size0.5 to 1.5 m
Floweringjuly-october
Habitatwastelands, rubble, field edges, disturbed nitrogen-rich soil

⚠️ Not to be confused with

No frequent wild food confusion (—)—

To tell them apart: most poisonings are voluntary (ingestion of seeds or smoke sought for a hallucinogenic effect) rather than accidental; the main risk is recreational users underestimating the toxicity

Other ornamental Solanaceae (Brugmansia, 'Angel's trumpet') (Brugmansia spp.)comparable toxicity, also fatal

To tell them apart: Brugmansia features hanging flowers and lacks an erect spiky fruit; both genera must be avoided equally

☠️ What kills

nomAnticholinergic tropane alkaloids: scopolamine, hyoscyamine, atropine, mainly concentrated in the seeds
dose letale estimeeabout 15 to 25 seeds can cause severe toxicity in adults; the lethal dose varies greatly depending on the plant's alkaloid content and individual sensitivity (approx)
delai30 min to 1 h
symptomesclassic anticholinergic syndrome: dry mouth, warm dry skin, mydriasis, tachycardia, urinary retention, agitation, hallucinations, delirium, sometimes seizures and coma
antidotephysostigmine possible in intensive care for severe forms with uncontrollable delirium; otherwise symptomatic treatment
morts documenteesyes — deaths are regularly reported in toxicological literature, particularly among teenagers during voluntary recreational use

First steps : Call emergency poison control immediately, especially in case of fever, extreme agitation, or seizures. Do not induce vomiting (risk of aspiration in case of delirium). Keep the suspect seeds or fruits for identification.

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.