Desert Thorn Apple and Western Jimson Weed

Only two of the nine species of datura are found in Anza-Borrego. They are desert thorn apple (Datura discolor) and western jimson weed (Datura wrightii).

The flowers of Datura wrightii are 6-8 inches long, while the flowers of Datura discolor measure 4-6 inches. The calyx, the slightly shorter, green lower part of the flower, is ribbed toward the base in Datura wrightii and 5-winged toward the base in Datura discolor. Flowers of both species are white, often tinged with purple. There are purple markings inside the tube of the Datura discolor flower. The meaning of discolor can be taken as variegated, tainted, or stained.

With a magnifying glass, you may notice that the Datura wrightii flowers have hairs. Datura wrightii can be a perennial or an annual, while Datura discolor is always an annual.

The fruits of both plants are prickled, hence the often-used common name thorn apple.

Datura species are known by a number of common names, with jimson weed being perhaps most often applied in the United States and Toloache in Mexico. Other names include desert thorn apple for Datura discolor and sacred datura and sacred thorn apple for Datura wrightii. The Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County, by Jon P. Rebman and Michael G. Simpson, published by the San Diego Natural History Museum and San Diego State University, uses desert thorn apple for Datura discolor and western jimson eeed for Datura wrightii.

The names sacred datura and sacred thorn apple are references to their ceremonial use by Hindus in India and Native Americans in the United States. In fact, the name datura is a derivative of the Hindi name for the plant.

Native-American uses of such plants are well described in ethnobotany references such as Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants, by Lowell John Bean and Katherine Siva Saubel, Chumash Ethnobotany: Plant Knowledge Among the Chumash People of Southern California, by Jan Timbrook, and Healing with medicinal plants of the west, by Cecilia Garcia and James Adams.