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OK so the lady at the house where I left the note called me tonight. She does not speak very good English but I understood her to say it is called a Moon Flower, it opens at night but you can still see it in the morning which is when I walk by it and that the lady across the street gave it to her but she has since moved.
Sorry it is me again. I just googled moonflower and it is not the same flower. It definitely has to be a brugmansia. Common names can be so confusing. Does the brugmansia open in the evening like she said this supposed moon flower does..? This flower is big and trumpet like while the moon flower pictures only show a white flower not at all similar.
I have what we have always called a Moon Flower. It looks exactly like the large white trumpet shaped flower pictured below the cream one. The leaves are the same also. It opens at night, with a wonderful lemony scent that attracts huge sphinx moths. It is upright until the heat of day causesit to close and drop completely upside-down. Before they open, the buds look like twisted candles. It produces a spiky hard seed pod that breaks open to spread seeds. I believe it is a Datura Inoxia. I do know that they can spread seeds widely and be invasive. I have had as many as 50 blooms in one night, each as long as my hand!
firebll31 is right. The one I posted is Datura innoxia (or inoxia). It is related to brugmansia. What you probably found when you googled was Ipomoea alba. It's really just a morning glory that blooms at night. Daturas open right after dark in my yard and fall off around 10am to noon depending on when the sun hits them. The other confusing thing is that brugmansias tend to bloom their full flush around the time of the full moon. Taken this morning, you can see about 20 open blooms. They last 2-3 days each and have a clean, fresh scent that reminds me of very fine soap with a hint of lemon.
I don't know the exact name of mine. It was a gift and was labeled Ecuador White. That could be wrong. eBay, go figure.
The datura innoxia looks like this.
I have another datura that I'm unsure of the name too, but it's a triple bloom. It has less fragrance than the white, but the flower is gorgeous.
Yes paperhouse you are right. I'm still having trouble between datura and brugmansia but the picture you post of datura seems to be closest. Could an untrained eye tell the difference? I actually walked in the lady's yard this a.m. and saw that the stem is really a thick vine like texture which is what made it look like a woody shrub. But it isn't a vine like I know Moon flowers are. Still the flower on the brugmansia looks so much like this flower too.
Your triple layer datura is gorgeous,. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom.
I am sending you a message separately.
When I was visiting my sister a few years ago her neighbor had one. Me being curious and having never seen this plant I simply had to take a closer look. I went up to it, uninvited mind you, and examined it. I gently grabbed one of the flowers and gave it a smell. A few minutes later my vision started to blur and I found myself unable to walk straight. My sister thought I was having a stroke and started crying and yelling for her phone. A woman ran out of the house asking me what I was doing in her yard. Realizing what I had done she ran back into the house and brought me eye drops, very kind. She suggested that I stay away from plants that I don't know. NEVER!!!!!!
This is datura. There's more than one plant here. It's in a parking lot here in town. I got my seeds from this plant. Any seeds from this plant will look just like this plant. The blooms won't be a different color and it will always grow in the same manner, about 4' tall, 4-8' wide depending on your zone. Here, we can get 8' wide and it usually returns from the root IF you cut it back before frost.
In the lower left, you see the datura plant. It's dark green and short. There is a single white bloom, about 6" long, ready to open, pointing upward. The brugmansia is in the back. The blooms here have been open for 2-3 days. They always hang down.
This is a bloom from last night. It's the only time you will see a datura bloom hang down. It's done. It lasts 1 night and if pollinated, grows into a seed pod.
Going on day 4 with these brugmansia blooms. They wilt a little during the day, but the whole plant does in full sun. They come back at night and become lots more fragrant.
Another datura bloom. Pointing up, about to open. Takes 15-20 minutes once it uncurls. Moonvine, the morning glory like vine, the blooms open in about a minute. You can watch them unfurl.
Datura is also known as thornapple. This is the seed pod. If you see these on the plant, it is a datura. If the seed pods hang down and look like beans, it's brugmansia.
It's not so much wisdom, as experience. I was clueless and confused them when I first started trying to find out what that huge white flower down the street was. Then I discovered brugs shortly after.
Just thought of another thing. If you look at the leaves of the datura, they will be mostly smooth and rounded. The brugmansia will have deeply serated leaves. You can see it in the picture with the yellow blooms. Pure white brugmansia blooms are almost unheard of. They usually have a bit of yellow or pink in them. Datura inoxia will be white, white, white. WHITE. But the seed pod is the easiest way to tell.
Last edited by paperhouse; 08-06-2009 at 06:45 PM..
Wow, I love your pictures! I wish I could get my daturas to look like the ones in the parking lot! Thanks for the tip about cutting them back BEFORE frost....I've thought that mine should come back from the root in my zone, and wondered why they didn't. Seeds came back up though, thankfully.
I have had two white brugs, and neither of them ever bloomed or even grew very much. I have the current one (first one kicked the bucket, same place as current one....I know, stupid of me....thought maybe the first one just wasn't healthy enough, it was a gimme off of a neighbor's) in a bed of nice topsoil, with about half a day of sun (morning to noon or 1 p.m.). I know they like a lot of water, but that didn't help. I don't know what to do with it....I WANT AN ANGEL'S TRUMPET!!! *sigh*
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