The Thorn Apple.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20274, 7 April 1934, Page 18

The Thorn Apple.

A Garden Corner.

T HE THORN APPLE has been of interest to several growers of late, and I am indebted to Mr R. Grant, of Mayfield Avenue, and to Mr S. Lindsay, Spreydon, for verification of its identity. It is not common in this country, but has appeared in several localities, and attracts attention by its peculiar and striking appearance. Known botanically as Datura stramonium, it is allied to the handsome greenhouse Brugmansias, and comes from Arabia and India. It is also called the jimson weed. In medical circles it is of importance, for the narcotic Daturin is a product of this plant. The leaves are cut and dried when the plant is in full flower, somewhat similarly to tobacco, and up to 15001 b of dry leaf per acre may be harvested.

If a market offered it would be worth cultivating, but it must be handled with care, being highly poisonous. The large trumpet flowers soon fall, leaving a prominent spiked capsule as big as a walnut. This is full of dark seeds. If grown for the leafage, the practice is to remove the flowers as they appear. It is credited with being useful to smoke or inhale by sufferers from asthma. T. D. LEMN'IE.