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Sacred Datura
Oct. 23rd, 2003 04:00 pm
aka Jimsonweed, Locoweed, Jamestown Weed, Datura stramonium, Moonflowers, Mothbells, Desert Trumpet, Angel's Trumpet, Devil's Horn, Devil's Trumpet, Dwale, Baneflower...
This particular plant is responsible for about 20 deaths a year in the deserts of the southwest, mostly teenagers looking for a cheap high and meeting a painful death instead. It's a member of the Nightshade family, along w/Deadly Nightshade itself, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, eggplant... full of three major toxic alkaloids - hyoscyamine, scopolamine & atropine. Atropine is an antidote for opiate overdose, but there is no antidote for nightshade poisoning. Home of the big three for flying ointments... Medically useful for numerous disorders, once used by Italian women to dilate their pupils to appear more bewitching.. and o so deadly.
Sacred Datura, used by the ecstatic assassins of Kali, the Thugees of India were reputed to be such masters of the plant that they could dose their victims according to how long they wanted them to be unconscious, or how quickly they wanted to die.
My plant ally, the one who came to me so long ago, the Thornapple, the Devil's Bit, it grows on every continent except Antartica in some form, found and used by shamanic cultures all over the world. I've been waiting for my chance to actually have a place where I could grow some, nurture the plants from seed to eventual death...
10/23/03
10:45am or so
Tuesday afternoon I gathered some jimsonweed seedpods. Left tobacco offering.
Thursday morning, I broke the pods open & dumped out the seeds. One pod had a couple of live grubs in it, probably future swallowtails. I looked at them, mildly disgusted, thinking to myself, "Gee, if I ate that grub, I'd probably die." I don't know if the seeds are viable - they look very dried out. I'll probably soak them in warm water for awhile before I attempt planting them. I'm going to take a couple of plastic cups & just fill them w/yard dirt & see how the seeds do, vs. getting potting soil & seeing how those seeds do.
Just from playing w/the pods & getting stuck w/the stickers on them, my right fingertips are kind of numb & tingly.
I ate one seed - dry, slightly bitter, plant-like flavor. No numbness or tingling on the tongue, but also no pain or burning, either, so I'm probably not allergic. The seeds are maybe 2mm across, they look like flat kidney beans, dark brown w/a darker edge.
The smell makes me feel better, just having it around again. That lush, rank green smell... even though I've washed my hands numerous times and dyed my hair today, it's still lingering in my fingernails.
Funny - I've got enough seeds to maybe end the lives of 2 or 3 people... I keep thinking of telling someone this & then offering them some home-made poppyseed bread, just for the reaction...
This particular plant is responsible for about 20 deaths a year in the deserts of the southwest, mostly teenagers looking for a cheap high and meeting a painful death instead. It's a member of the Nightshade family, along w/Deadly Nightshade itself, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, eggplant... full of three major toxic alkaloids - hyoscyamine, scopolamine & atropine. Atropine is an antidote for opiate overdose, but there is no antidote for nightshade poisoning. Home of the big three for flying ointments... Medically useful for numerous disorders, once used by Italian women to dilate their pupils to appear more bewitching.. and o so deadly.
Sacred Datura, used by the ecstatic assassins of Kali, the Thugees of India were reputed to be such masters of the plant that they could dose their victims according to how long they wanted them to be unconscious, or how quickly they wanted to die.
My plant ally, the one who came to me so long ago, the Thornapple, the Devil's Bit, it grows on every continent except Antartica in some form, found and used by shamanic cultures all over the world. I've been waiting for my chance to actually have a place where I could grow some, nurture the plants from seed to eventual death...
10/23/03
10:45am or so
Tuesday afternoon I gathered some jimsonweed seedpods. Left tobacco offering.
Thursday morning, I broke the pods open & dumped out the seeds. One pod had a couple of live grubs in it, probably future swallowtails. I looked at them, mildly disgusted, thinking to myself, "Gee, if I ate that grub, I'd probably die." I don't know if the seeds are viable - they look very dried out. I'll probably soak them in warm water for awhile before I attempt planting them. I'm going to take a couple of plastic cups & just fill them w/yard dirt & see how the seeds do, vs. getting potting soil & seeing how those seeds do.
Just from playing w/the pods & getting stuck w/the stickers on them, my right fingertips are kind of numb & tingly.
I ate one seed - dry, slightly bitter, plant-like flavor. No numbness or tingling on the tongue, but also no pain or burning, either, so I'm probably not allergic. The seeds are maybe 2mm across, they look like flat kidney beans, dark brown w/a darker edge.
The smell makes me feel better, just having it around again. That lush, rank green smell... even though I've washed my hands numerous times and dyed my hair today, it's still lingering in my fingernails.
Funny - I've got enough seeds to maybe end the lives of 2 or 3 people... I keep thinking of telling someone this & then offering them some home-made poppyseed bread, just for the reaction...
