Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Jimson Weed (Datura)


Although there are many names for it as well as spellings, the jimson weed is a beautiful flower. I had one in my yard for many years and it might not come back this year after mowing it over repeatedly for years.

"If it's such a beautiful flower then why would you mow it down?" you might ask. It's pretty invasive. Once the flowers are done, it makes a seed pod that looks what I imagine a spine ship from Lamplighter would look like. Inside there are, I would guess, hundreds of seeds. The seeds are poisonous. Ingesting just a few can kill you.

Also, it's spread to my nieghbors yard and I can still see it when I come home in the evenings. It really is a sight to see. Pictured here is only one flower but when even a small plant starts to bloom it can have as many as will fit. The one we had in the back which was only about two feet tall usually had fifteen to twenty flowers at at time.

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