Brazil's white Angel Trumpet

Description:

Brugmansia are annual trees or shrubs (in our climate) with pendulous, not erect, flowers. Most have tan, slightly rough bark and produce spiny fruit. The leaves are generally large and alternate, some with toothy margins and covered with fine hairs. Their common name refers to the large, very dramatic trumpet-shaped flowers. Color ranges from white through yellow to pink and even orange or red. Most also boast an attractive scent with citrus overtones, most noticeable in early evening. Brugmansia suaveolens is a semi-woody shrub or small tree, growing up to 3–5 m tall, often with a many-branched trunk. The leaves are oval, to 25 cm long by 15 cm wide, and even larger when grown in the shade. The flowers are remarkably beautiful and sweetly fragrant, about 24 – 32 cm long and shaped like trumpets. The corolla body is slightly recurved to 5 main points, but the very peaks in the true species are always curved outwards, never rolled back, and these peaks are short, only 1 – 2.5 cm (0.4–1.0 in) long. The flowers are usually white but may be yellow or pink and hang downward from fully pendulous up to nearly horizontal.

Habitat:

Brugmansia suaveolens, Brazil's white Angel Trumpet, is a South American species of flowering plants that grow as shrubs or small trees with large fragrant flowers.

Notes:

Most Brugmansia are fragrant in the evenings to attract pollinating moths. Brugmansia are most often grown today as flowering ornamental plants. All parts of Brugmansia are poisonous, with the seeds and leaves being especially dangerous. Brugmansia are rich in Scopolamine (hyoscine), hyoscyamine, and several other tropane alkaloids. Effects of ingestion can include paralysis of smooth muscles, confusion, tachycardia, dry mouth, diarrhea, migraine headaches, visual and auditory hallucinations, mydriasis, rapid onset cycloplegia, and death. Many South American cultures use Brugmansia suaveolens ritually. The Ingano and Siona in the Putumayo region both use it as an entheogen. It is also use by some Amazonian tribes as an admixture to increase the potency of Ayahuasca. The flowers and the seeds are traditionally used in Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil, mixed in water and ingested for its analgesic-like effect. Flower extracts have shown pain-killing (antinociceptive) activity in mice.This antinociceptive activity may be related in part to benzodiazepine receptors.