Datura

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Datura
Sacred datura (Datura wrightii) (14212557338).jpg
Datura wrightii
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Solanales
Family: Solanaceae
Subfamily: Solanoideae
Tribe: Datureae
Genus: Datura
L.
Type species
Datura stramonium
L.
Species

9–14 (See text)

Datura is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine-flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). [1] They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil's trumpets [2] (not to be confused with angel's trumpets, which are placed in the closely related genus Brugmansia ). Other English common names include moonflower, devil's weed, and hell's bells. All species of Datura are extremely poisonous and psychoactive, especially their seeds and flowers, which can cause respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, anticholinergic syndrome, psychosis, and death if taken internally. [3]

Contents

Due to their effects and symptoms, Datura species have occasionally been used not only as poisons, but also as hallucinogens by various groups throughout history. [4] [5] Traditionally, their psychoactive administration has often been associated with witchcraft and sorcery or similar practices in many cultures, including the Western world. [5] [6] [7] Certain common Datura species have also been used ritualistically as entheogens by some Native American groups. [8] [9]

Non-psychoactive use of plants in the genus is usually done for medicinal purposes, and the alkaloids present in some species have long been considered traditional medicines in both the New and Old Worlds due to the presence of the alkaloids scopolamine and atropine, which are also produced by plants associated with Old World medicine such as Hyoscyamus niger , Atropa belladonna , and Mandragora officinarum . [4] [5] [10]

Etymology

The generic name Datura is taken from Hindi धतूरा dhatūra "thorn-apple", [11] ultimately from Sanskrit धत्तूर dhattūra "white thorn-apple" (referring to Datura metel of Asia). [12] In the Ayurvedic text Sushruta Samhita , different species of Datura are also referred to as kanaka and unmatta. [12] Dhatura is offered to Shiva in Hinduism. Record of this name in English dates back to 1662. [13] Nathaniel Hawthorne refers to one type in The Scarlet Letter as "apple-Peru". In Mexico, its common name is toloache. The Mexican common name toloache (also spelled tolguacha) derives from the Nahuatl tolohuaxihuitl, meaning "the plant with the nodding head" (in reference to the nodding seed capsules of Datura species belonging to section Dutra of the genus).

Description

Datura species are herbaceous, leafy annuals and short-lived perennials, which can reach up to 2 m in height. The leaves are alternate, 10–20 cm long, and 5–18 cm broad, with a lobed or toothed margin. The flowers are erect or spreading (not pendulous like those of Brugmansia ), trumpet-shaped, 5–20 cm long, and 4–12 cm broad at the mouth; colours vary from white to yellow and pale purple. The fruit is a spiny capsule, 4–10 cm long and 2–6 cm broad, splitting open when ripe to release the numerous seeds. The seeds disperse freely over pastures, fields, and even wasteland locations.

Datura belongs to the classic "witches' weeds", along with deadly nightshade, henbane, and mandrake. All parts of the plants are toxic, and the genus has a long history of use for causing delirious states and death. It was well known as an essential ingredient of magical ointments, potions, and witches' brews, most notably Datura stramonium . [14] [15]

In India, D. metel has long been regarded as a poison and aphrodisiac, having been used in Ayurveda as a medicine since ancient times. It features in rituals and prayers to Shiva and also in Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival devoted to the deity Ganesha. [16] The larvae of some Lepidoptera (butterfly and moth) species, including Hypercompe indecisa , eat some Datura species. It has been observed that while insects may prefer to feed on Datura leaves, other animals such as cows will generally avoid consuming them.

Species and cultivars

Datura metel 'Fastuosa' Datura FR 2012.jpg
Datura metel 'Fastuosa'

Classifying Datura as to its species is difficult, and the descriptions of new species often are accepted prematurely. Later, these "new species" are found to be simply varieties that have evolved due to conditions at a specific location. They usually disappear in a few years. Contributing to the confusion is the fact that various species, such as D. wrightii and D. inoxia, are very similar in appearance, and the variation within a species can be extreme. For example, Datura species can change size of plant, leaf, and flowers, all depending on location. The same species, when growing in a half-shady, damp location can develop into a flowering bush half as tall as an adult human of average height, but when growing in a very dry location, will only grow into a thin plant not much more than ankle high, with tiny flowers and a few miniature leaves. [14] Datura species are native to dry, temperate, and subtropical regions. Most species native to Mexico, which is considered the center of origin of the genus. Several species are considered to have extra-American native ranges: D. ferox (native to China), D. metel (native to India and Southeast Asia), and D. leichardthii (native to Australia), however these may be early introductions from Central America. [17]

A group of South American species formerly placed in the genus Datura are now placed in the distinct genus Brugmansia [18] (Brugmansia differs from Datura in that it is woody (the species being shrubs or small trees) and has indehiscent fruits. The solanaceous tribe Datureae, to which Datura and Brugmansia belong, has recently acquired a new, monotypic genus Trompettia J. Dupin, featuring the species Trompettia cardenasiana, which had hitherto been misclassified as belonging to the genus Iochroma .

Datura specialists, the Preissels, accept only 9 species of Datura, [14] but Kew's Plants of the World Online currently lists the following 14 (out of which the current edition of The Plant List does not list D. arenicola, D. lanosa, and D. pruinosa as accepted spp.):

Of the above, D. leichhardtii is close enough to D. pruinosa to merit demotion to a subspecies and likewise D. ferox and D. quercifolia are close enough in morphology to merit being subsumed in a single species. Furthermore, the Australian provenance of D. leichhardtii, the Chinese provenance of D. ferox, and the Afro-Asiatic provenance of D. metel have been cast into serious doubt, with the three species being almost certainly post-Columbian introductions to the regions to which they were originally thought native. [19]

The case of D. metel is unique in that not only is the plant not a true species at all, but an assemblage of ancient pre-Columbian cultivars created from D. innoxia in the Greater Antilles, but evidence is mounting that it was introduced to the Indian subcontinent no later than the second century CE whether by natural or human agency is, as yet, unknown making it one of the most ancient plant introductions (if not the most ancient) from the New World to the Old World (see Columbian Exchange). [19] [16] [20]

D. arenicola is a remarkable new species, described only in 2013, of very restricted range, and so distinctive as to have merited the creation for it of the new section Discola [not to be confused with the species name D. discolor] within the genus. The specific name arenicola means "loving (i.e. "thriving in") sand". [21]

ImageScientific nameCommon nameDistribution
Datura arenicola Gentry ex Bye & LunaSand thorn-apple, Baja datura, Vizcaíno Desert datura Baja California Sur, Mexico
Datura ceratocaula.jpg D. ceratocaula Jacq. torna loco, Sister of Ololiuhqui, swamp daturaMexico.
Whiteflower8.jpg D. discolor Bernh. (syn. D. kymatocarpa , D. reburra )desert thorn-apple Sonoran Desert of western North America
Datura ferox.JPG D. ferox L. long-spined thorn-applesoutheastern China (disputed [19] )
Datura inoxia (8482127654).jpg D. innoxia Mill. thorn-apple, downy thorn-apple, Indian-apple, moonflower, toloatzin, toloacheSouthwestern United States, Central and South America (cosmopolitan weed)
Datura leichhardtii stamens.jpg D. leichhardtii F.Muell. ex Benth. (syn. D. pruinosa)Leichhardt's daturafrom Mexico to Guatemala
Brugmansia metel syn Datura.png D. metel L.Hindu datura, Indian thorn-apple, devil's trumpet [14] Asia, Africa (disputed [19] )
Datura quercifolia flower.jpg D. quercifolia Kunth oak-leaved thorn-appleMexico and the Southwestern United States
Datura stramonium 003.JPG D. stramonium L. (syn. D. inermis, D. bernhardii)jimsonweed, thorn-apple, devil's snareCentral America (cosmopolitan weed)
Datura wrightii in Apple Valley, California 1.jpg D. wrightii Regel sacred datura, western jimsonweed, California jimsonweed, sacred thorn-apple, tolguacha, toloacheSouthwestern United States

American Brugmansia and Datura Society, Inc. (ABADS) is designated in the 2004 edition of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants as the official International Cultivar Registration Authority for Datura. This role was delegated to ABADS by the International Society for Horticultural Science in 2002.

Past classified species

Cultivation

Fruit Datura fruit.jpg
Fruit
Datura metel 'Fastuosa' (Hindi: kaalaa dhtuuraa kala dhatura - "black datura") Datura metel Fastuosa2944475918.jpg
Datura metel 'Fastuosa' (Hindi: काला धतूरा kāla dhatūra – "black datura")

Datura species are usually sown annually from the seed produced in the spiny capsules, but, with care, the tuberous-rooted perennial species may be overwintered. Most species are suited to being planted outside or in containers. As a rule, they need warm, sunny places and soil that will keep their roots dry. When grown outdoors in good locations, the plants tend to reseed themselves and may become invasive. In containers, they should have porous, aerated potting soil with adequate drainage. The plants are susceptible to fungi in the root area, so anaerobic organic enrichment such as anaerobically composted organic matter or manure, should be avoided. [14]

Toxicity

All Datura plants contain tropane alkaloids such as scopolamine and atropine, primarily in their seeds and flowers, as well as the roots of certain species such as D. wrightii . Because of the presence of these substances, Datura has been used for centuries in some cultures as a poison. [14] [22] [4] A given plant's toxicity depends on its age, where it is growing, and the local weather conditions. These variations make Datura exceptionally hazardous as a drug. Since datura directly causes the effects of anticholinergic syndrome, the symptoms of its toxicity are often cited by the traditional mnemonic: "Blind as a bat, mad as a hatter, red as a beet, hot as a hare, dry as a bone, the bowel and bladder lose their tone, and the heart runs alone". [23] Datura, as well as long-term psychoactive/toxic usage of other anticholinergic drugs, also appear to significantly increase the risk of developing dementia. [24] [25]

In traditional cultures, a great deal of experience with and detailed knowledge of Datura was critical to minimize harm. [14] Many tragic incidents result from modern users ingesting or smoking Datura. [26] For example, in the 1990s and 2000s, the United States media reported stories of adolescents and young adults dying or becoming seriously ill from intentionally ingesting Datura. [27] [28] Deliberate or inadvertent poisoning resulting from smoking jimsonweed and other related species has been reported as well. [29] Although most poisonings occur with more common species of Datura such as D. stramonium , several reports in the medical literature indicate deaths from D. ferox intoxication. [30] [31] [32] Children are especially vulnerable to atropine poisoning. [33] [34]

D. inoxia with ripe, split-open fruit Datura innoxia fruit split open.jpg
D. inoxia with ripe, split-open fruit

In some parts of Europe and India, Datura has been a popular poison for suicide and murder. [35] From 1950 to 1965, the State Chemical Laboratories in Agra, India, investigated 2,778 deaths caused by ingesting Datura. [14] [36] A group called Thugs (practicers of thuggee) were reportedly devotees of an Indian religious cult made up of robbers and assassins who strangled or poisoned their victims in rituals devoted to the Hindu goddess Kali. They were alleged to employ Datura in many such poisonings, using it also to induce drowsiness or stupefaction, making strangulation easier. [37]

Datura toxins may be ingested accidentally by consumption of honey produced by several wasp species, including Brachygastra lecheguana , during the Datura blooming season. These semi-domesticated honey wasps apparently collect Datura nectar for honey production, which can lead to poisoning. [38]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported accidental poisoning resulting in hospitalization for a family of six who inadvertently ingested Datura used as an ingredient in stew. [39]

In some places,[ which? ] buying, selling, or cultivating Datura plants is prohibited. [14] [36] Solanaceous tribes with a similar chemistry (i.e. a similar tropane alkaloid content), include the Hyoscyameae, containing such well-known toxic species as Hyoscyamus niger and Atropa belladonna , the Solandreae containing the genus Solandra ("chalice vines") and the Mandragoreae, named for the famous Mandragora officinarum , most of which are considered traditional witches' herbs and poisons.

Effects of ingestion

Datura is considered a deliriant. Due to the potent combination of anticholinergic substances it contains, Datura intoxication typically produces the effects of anticholinergic delirium (usually involving a complete or relative inability to differentiate reality from fantasy); bizarre thoughts, hyperthermia; tachycardia; bizarre, and possibly violent behavior; dry skin; dry mouth; illusions; and severe mydriasis (dilated pupils) with resultant painful photophobia that can last several days. [40] Muscle stiffness, urinary retention, temporary paralysis, disrobing, emotional bluntness, dysphoria, and confusion are often reported, and pronounced amnesia is another commonly reported effect. [41] [42] The psychoactive alkaloids scopolamine and atropine are also both known for their characteristic hyperactive effects and ability to cause stark and dream-like hallucinations. [43] [44] The onset of symptoms generally occurs around 30 to 60 minutes after ingesting the herb. These symptoms generally last from 24 to 48 hours, but have been reported in some cases to last two weeks or longer. [29] [45] [46]

Treatment

Due to their agitated behavior and confused mental state, people with acute Datura poisoning or intoxication are typically hospitalized. Gastric lavage and the administration of activated charcoal can be used to reduce the stomach's absorption of the ingested material, and the drug physostigmine is used to reverse the effect of the poisons. Benzodiazepines can be given to calm the patient's agitation, and supportive care with oxygen, hydration, and symptomatic treatment is often provided. Observation of the patient is indicated until the symptoms resolve, usually from 24 to 36 hours after ingestion of the Datura. [36] [45]

Psychoactive use

In Pharmacology and Abuse of Cocaine, Amphetamines, Ecstasy and Related Designer Drugs, Freye asserts, "Few substances have received as many severely negative recreational experience reports as has Datura." [47] The overwhelming majority of those who describe their use of Datura find their experiences extremely unpleasant; both mentally and often physically dangerous. [41] However, anthropologists have found that indigenous groups, with a great deal of experience with and detailed knowledge of Datura, have been known to use Datura spiritually (including the Navajo and especially the Havasupai). [48] [49] Adequate knowledge of Datura's properties is necessary to facilitate a safe experience. [14] The ancient inhabitants of what became central and southern California used to ingest Datura to "commune with deities through visions". [50] The Southern Paiute believe Datura can help locate missing objects. [51] In ancient Mexico, Datura also played an important role in the religion of the Aztecs and the practices of their medicine men and necromancers. [52] It was reportedly used by the Aztecs for ritual sacrifice and malevolent purposes as well. [53] In modern-day Mexico, some datura species are still used for sorcery and other occult practices, mostly in the southern region of Veracruz, specifically in the city of Catemaco. [54] [55]

Bernardino de Sahagún, in around 1569, called attention to Datura in these words: "It is administered in potions in order to cause harm to those who are objects of hatred. Those who eat it have visions of fearful things. Magicians or those who wish to harm someone administer it in food or drink. This herb is medicinal and its seed is used as a remedy for gout, ground up and applied to the part affected." [52]

Christian Rätsch has said, "A mild dosage produces medicinal and healing effects, a moderate dosage produces aphrodisiac effects, and high dosages are used for shamanic purposes". Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist, also lists it as an essential ingredient of Haitian zombie potion. [56] In Western culture, the same species ( Datura stramonium ) has been said to have been commonly used by witches as an ingredient for their flying ointments and was regularly included in detailed recipes of magical ointments dating back as far as the early modern period, predominately in New England and Western Europe. [6] [10] [57] During the anti-witchcraft hysteria of colonial times it was considered unlucky or inappropriate to grow D. stramonium in one's garden due to its supposed reputation for aiding in incantations. [58]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scopolamine</span> Tropane alkaloid & anticholinergic drug

Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, or Devil's Breath, is a natural or synthetically produced tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic drug that is used as a medication to treat motion sickness and postoperative nausea and vomiting. It is also sometimes used before surgery to decrease saliva. When used by injection, effects begin after about 20 minutes and last for up to 8 hours. It may also be used orally and as a transdermal patch since it has been long known to have transdermal bioavailability.

<i>Datura stramonium</i> Species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae

Datura stramonium, known by the common names thorn apple, jimsonweed, devil's snare, or devil's trumpet, is a poisonous flowering plant of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It is a species belonging to the Datura genus and Daturae tribe. Its likely origin was in Central America, and it has been introduced in many world regions. It is an aggressive invasive weed in temperate climates and tropical climates across the world. D. stramonium has frequently been employed in traditional medicine to treat a variety of ailments. It has also been used as a hallucinogen, taken entheogenically to cause intense, sacred or occult visions. It is unlikely ever to become a major drug of abuse owing to effects upon both mind and body frequently perceived as being highly unpleasant, giving rise to a state of profound and long-lasting disorientation or delirium with a potentially fatal outcome. It contains tropane alkaloids which are responsible for the psychoactive effects, and may be severely toxic.

<i>Atropa belladonna</i> Species of toxic flowering plant in the nightshade family.

Atropa belladonna, commonly known as belladonna or deadly nightshade, is a toxic perennial herbaceous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, which also includes tomatoes, potatoes and aubergine (eggplant). It is native to Europe and Western Asia, including Turkey. Its distribution extends from Ireland in the west to western Ukraine and the Iranian province of Gilan in the east. It is also naturalised or introduced in some parts of Canada, North Africa and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyoscyamine</span> Tropane alkaloid

Hyoscyamine is a naturally occurring tropane alkaloid and plant toxin. It is a secondary metabolite found in certain plants of the family Solanaceae, including henbane, mandrake, angel's trumpets, jimsonweed, the sorcerers' tree, and Atropa belladonna. It is the levorotary isomer of atropine and thus sometimes known as levo-atropine.

<i>Datura wrightii</i> Species of plant in southwestern North America

Datura wrightii, commonly known as sacred datura, is a poisonous perennial plant species and ornamental flower of the family Solanaceae native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is sometimes used as a hallucinogen due to its psychoactive alkaloids. D. wrightii is classified as an anticholinergic deliriant.

<i>Brugmansia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae

Brugmansia is a genus of seven species of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. They are woody trees or shrubs, with pendulous flowers, and have no spines on their fruit. Their large, fragrant flowers give them their common name of angel's trumpets, adjacent to the nickname devil's trumpets of the closely related genus Datura.

<i>Hyoscyamus niger</i> Species of plant

Henbane is a poisonous plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Henbane is native to temperate Europe and Siberia, and naturalised in Great Britain and Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deliriant</span> Class of psychoactive drugs

Deliriants are a subclass of hallucinogen. The term was coined in the early 1980s to distinguish these drugs from psychedelics such as LSD and dissociatives such as ketamine, due to their primary effect of causing delirium, as opposed to the more lucid and less disturbed states produced by other types of hallucinogens. The term generally refers to anticholinergic drugs, which are substances that inhibit the function of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Common examples of deliriants include plants of the genera Datura and Brugmansia as well as higher than recommended dosages of diphenhydramine (Benadryl). A number of plant deliriants such as that of the Solanaceae family, particularly in the Americas have been used by some indigenous cultures to reach delirious and altered states for traditions or rituals, such as rites of passage, divination or communicating with the ancestors. Despite their long history of use, deliriants are the least-studied class of hallucinogens in terms of their behavioral and neurological effects.

<i>Datura metel</i> Species of flowering plant

Datura metel is a shrub-like annual or short-lived, shrubby perennial, commonly known in Europe as Indian thornapple, Hindu Datura, or metel and in the United States as devil's trumpet or angel's trumpet. Datura metel is naturalised in all the warmer countries of the world. It is found notably in India, where it is known by the ancient, Sanskrit-derived, Hindi name dhatūra (धतूरा), from which the genus name Datura is derived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aztec use of entheogens</span> Entheogenic use by ancient Aztecs

The ancient Aztecs employed a variety of entheogenic plants and animals within their society. The various species have been identified through their depiction on murals, vases, and other objects.

<i>Datura innoxia</i> Species of plant

Datura innoxia, known as pricklyburr, recurved thorn-apple, downy thorn-apple, Indian-apple, lovache, moonflower, nacazcul, toloatzin, toloaxihuitl, tolguache or toloache, is a species of flowering plant in the family Solanaceae. It is more rarely called sacred datura, a common name which is applied more often to the closely related Datura wrightii. It is native to the Southwestern United States, Central and South America, and introduced in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. The scientific name is often cited as D. innoxia. When English botanist Philip Miller first described the species in 1768, he misspelled the Latin word innoxia (inoffensive) when naming it D. inoxia. The name Datura meteloides was for some time erroneously applied to some members of the species, but that name has now been abandoned.

<i>Brugmansia versicolor</i> Species of flowering plant

Brugmansia versicolor is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae, commonly known as “angel’s trumpets”. They are endemic to Ecuador. Since March 2014, they have been listed as Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN.

<i>Brugmansia suaveolens</i> Species of plant

Brugmansia suaveolens, Brazil's white angel trumpet, also known as angel's tears and snowy angel's trumpet, is a species of flowering plant in the nightshade family Solanaceae, native to south eastern Brazil, but thought to be extinct in the wild. Like several other species of Brugmansia, it exists as an introduced species in areas outside its native range. It is a tender shrub or small tree with large semi-evergreen leaves and fragrant yellow or white trumpet-shaped flowers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropane alkaloid</span> Class of chemical compounds

Tropane alkaloids are a class of bicyclic [3.2.1] alkaloids and secondary metabolites that contain a tropane ring in their chemical structure. Tropane alkaloids occur naturally in many members of the plant family Solanaceae. Certain tropane alkaloids such as cocaine and scopolamine are notorious for their psychoactive effects, related usage and cultural associations. Particular tropane alkaloids such as these have pharmacological properties and can act as anticholinergics or stimulants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anisodamine</span> Chemical compound

Anisodamine, also known as 7β-hydroxyhyoscyamine, is an anticholinergic and α1 adrenergic receptor antagonist used in the treatment of acute circulatory shock in China. It is given orally or by injection, as a racemic mixture (racanisodamine) or as a hydrobromide salt. Eye drops at 0.5% concentration for slowing the progression of myopia is also available in China.

<i>Brugmansia sanguinea</i> Species of plant

Brugmansia sanguinea, the red angel's trumpet, is a species of South American flowering shrub or small tree belonging to the genus Brugmansia in tribe Datureae of subfamily Solanoideae of the nightshade family Solanaceae. It has been cultivated and used as an entheogen for shamanic purposes by the South American Natives for centuries - possibly even millennia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meteloidine</span> Chemical compound

Meteloidine is an alkaloid found in some Brugmansia and Datura species. Its also found in Erythroxylum australe and is said to be cocaine-like alkaloid.

<i>Mandragora</i> (genus) Genus of plants

Mandragora is a plant genus belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Members of the genus are known as mandrakes. Between three and five species are placed in the genus. The one or two species found around the Mediterranean constitute the mandrake of ancient writers such as Dioscorides. Two or three further species are found eastwards into China. All are perennial herbaceous plants, with large tap roots and leaves in the form of a rosette. Individual flowers are bell-shaped, whitish through to violet, and followed by yellow or orange berries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solanaceae</span> Family of flowering plants that includes tomatoes, potatoes and tobacco

The Solanaceae, or the nightshades, are a family of flowering plants that ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals. Many members of the family contain potent alkaloids, and some are highly toxic, but many—including tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, bell and chili peppers—are used as food. The family belongs to the order Solanales, in the asterid group and class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons). The Solanaceae consists of about 98 genera and some 2,700 species, with a great diversity of habitats, morphology and ecology.

<i>Atropa baetica</i> Species of flowering plant

Atropa baetica, commonly known as the Andalusian belladonna, is one of Europe's rarest wildflowers. A close relative of the infamous deadly nightshade, its specific name derives from that of the Roman province of Hispania Baetica, while its common name refers to the Spanish region of Andalucía – both designating the area in the south of Spain where it is most frequently encountered. It is an attractive perennial plant with a herbaceous habit, bearing infundibuliform, yellow or greenish flowers and shiny, black berries. Like the other three species of Atropa, it is an extremely poisonous plant, containing a variety of tropane alkaloids with anticholinergic, deliriant, antispasmodic and mydriatic properties. Although most populations of the plant are to be found in Spain, it is not wholly confined to the Iberian Peninsula of Europe, occurring also in certain localities in Morocco and Algeria in the Atlas Mountains of North Africa. The Rif and the Baetic System, which face each other across the Alboran Sea, together constitute one of the finest of the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspots – rich in endemic species, of which Atropa baetica is a notable example..

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Further reading