Datura (also called datura) belongs to the Solanaceae family. This is an annual, unusually fast-growing herbaceous plant with a straight, hollow stem inside, reaching a height of more than one hundred and ten centimeters. The leaves are very large, if rubbed, they begin to emit an unpleasant odor. Datura flower has a large size (up to twelve centimeters) in diameter, consists of five pointed, fused white petals with a stupefying sweet smell. Flowering lasts from June to October, while the flowers bloom in the evening and bloom very quickly. Datura flower has prickly fruits containing small blackish grains inside.
Habitat
Initially, Datura grew exclusively in Mexico and Northeast America. Recently, it can be found in the central part of Russia, in South-Western Siberia, in the expanses of the Caucasus and in Asia. Usually this plant grows in landfills, near the road, in gardens and fields.
Garden flowers
If the plant is planted in the garden, the dope flower will certainly win sympathy with its beauty and heady aroma. With generous watering, the dope will reach a height of three meters. In the shade, it tends upward, on a spacious sun-drenched place, on the contrary, spreads, reaching a height of no more than a meter. The flower of the Indian dope is incredibly beautiful, its white-purple twin flowers will become a decoration of the garden until the frost. Each of the flowers blooms for only two days, but a new one blooms to replace a faded one. In the evening, these garden flowers spread the most delicate intoxicating fragrance. Datura "troubadour" can reach about seventy centimeters in height by August, while daily blooming in each bush more than ten large snow-white flowers that have a pleasant but intoxicating aroma. Despite its beauty, all the constituent plants are unusually poisonous, therefore it should not be planted next to the bedroom windows, and children should not be allowed to stay near it for long. Even animals bypass the flower side, but the aroma, on the contrary, attracts many insects and bees.
Datura in folk medicine
For therapeutic purposes, they are stocked with leaves and tops of a flowering plant only in sunny weather, and seeds are collected from fruits in the fall. Preparations containing datura leaves perfectly calm the central nervous system, lower the secretory function of the glandular apparatus and are excellent antispasmodics. They are used as painkillers for pain in the stomach and intestines, treat sea and air sickness. Datura leaves are indispensable for asthmatic bronchitis and asthma. The plant is used only in the form of tincture and extract, as well as in the form of smoking powder and cigarettes against asthma. You can’t use Datura without medical advice. The flower is poisonous! Poisoning is expressed by an unpleasant sensation in the throat, inflatedness and even paralysis. First aid in such a situation should follow immediately.