Angel’s-trumpet, downy thorn-apple, herbe aux sorciers, Indian-apple, moonflower, pomme épineuse, pricklyburr, tlapatl, stramoine innofensive

Datura meteloides de Candolle ex Dunal

Herbs perennial, to 10 dm, roots tuberous. Stems usually villous-pubescent, sometimes glabrous. Leaf blades ovate, to 22 × 16 cm, margins entire or irregularly sinuate-dentate, surfaces villous to glabrescent, (trichomes spreading, often more dense along veins, sometimes glandular). Flowers: calyx villous along veins, hairs spreading, tube cylindric, 5-toothed; corolla white, sometimes lavender- or purple-tinged, funnelform, 10–22 cm, sparsely hairy, glabrescent, acuminate lobes alternating with lobules of similar size. Capsules pendent, irregularly dehiscent, pericarp fleshy, hairy, with prickles 10 mm; calyx remnant slightly accrescent. Seeds brown, 4–6 mm, convex marginal ridge present, testa smooth; caruncle present. 2n = 24.

Flowering Jul–Oct. Streamsides, road and trail margins, waste places, desert shrublands, grasslands; 0–2000 m; Ont., Que., Sask.; Ala., Ark., Conn., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., Md., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Mex., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., W.Va., Wis.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; n South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela); introduced nearly worldwide.

Datura innoxia is native to Texas and possibly New Mexico. Elsewhere in the flora area, it is widely introduced as an ornamental and, inadvertently, as a weed.