Editing Datura (section)

==Species and cultivars==
[[File:Datura FR 2012.jpg|thumb|''[[Datura metel]]'' 'Fastuosa']]
Classifying ''Datura'' as to its species is difficult, and the descriptions of new species often are accepted prematurely. Later, these "new species" are found to be simply varieties that have evolved due to conditions at a specific location. They usually disappear in a few years. Contributing to the confusion is the fact that various species, such as ''D. wrightii'' and ''D. inoxia'', are very similar in appearance, and the variation within a species can be extreme. For example, ''Datura'' species can change size of plant, leaf, and flowers, all depending on location. The same species, when growing in a half-shady, damp location can develop into a flowering bush half as tall as an adult human of average height, but when growing in a very dry location, will only grow into a thin plant not much more than ankle high, with tiny flowers and a few miniature leaves.<ref name="Preissel-2002">{{cite book |author1=Preissel, U. |author2=Preissel, H.-G. | title = ''Brugmansia'' and ''Datura'': Angel's Trumpets and Thorn Apples | publisher = Firefly Books | year = 2002 | location = Buffalo, NY | pages = 106–129 |  isbn = 1-55209-598-3 }}</ref> ''Datura'' species are native to dry, temperate, and subtropical regions. Most species are native to Mexico, which is considered the center of origin of the genus. Several species are considered to have extra-American native ranges: ''D. ferox'' (native to China), ''D. metel'' (native to India and Southeast Asia), and ''D. leichardthii'' (native to Australia), however these may be early introductions from Central America.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Karinho-Betancourt |first1=Eunice |last2=Agrawal |first2=Anurag A. |last3=Halitschke |first3=Rayko |last4=Nunez-Farf ~ an |first4=Juan |title=Phylogenetic correlations among chemical and physical plant defenses change with ontogeny |journal=New Phytologist |date=2015 |volume=206 |issue=2 |pages=796–806 |doi=10.1111/nph.13300 |pmid=25652325 |doi-access= |bibcode=2015NewPh.206..796K }}</ref>

A group of South American species formerly placed in the genus ''Datura'' are now placed in the distinct genus ''[[Brugmansia]]''<ref>{{cite book | editor = Hawkes, J. G. |author1=Lester, R. N. |author2=Nee, M. |author3=Estrada, N. | title = Solanaceae III – Taxonomy, Chemistry, Evolution (Proceedings of Third International Conference on Solanaceae) | publisher = Royal Botanic Gardens | year = 1991 | location = Kew | pages = 197–210 | isbn = 0-947643-31-1 }}</ref> (''Brugmansia'' differs from ''Datura'' in that it is woody (the species being [[shrub]]s or small [[tree]]s) and has [[indehiscent]] fruits.) The solanaceous tribe [[Datureae]], to which ''Datura'' and ''Brugmansia'' belong, has recently acquired a new, monotypic genus ''[[Trompettia]]'' <small>J. Dupin</small>, featuring the species ''Trompettia cardenasiana'', which had hitherto been misclassified as belonging to the genus ''[[Iochroma]]''.

''Datura'' specialists, the Preissels, accept only 9 species of ''Datura'',<ref name="Preissel-2002"/> but Kew's Plants of the World Online currently lists the following 14 (out of which the current edition of The Plant List does not list ''D. arenicola'', ''D. lanosa'', and ''D. pruinosa'' as accepted spp.):

*''[[Datura arenicola]]'' Gentry ex Bye & Luna
*''[[Datura ceratocaula]]'' Ortega
*''[[Datura discolor]]'' Bernh.
*''[[Datura ferox]]'' L.
*''[[Datura innoxia]]'' Mill.
*''[[Datura kymatocarpa]]'' Barclay
*''[[Datura lanosa]]'' A.S.Barclay ex Bye
*''[[Datura leichhardtii]]'' Benth.
*''[[Datura metel]]'' L.
*''Datura pruinosa'' Greenm.
*''[[Datura quercifolia]]'' Kunth
*''[[Datura reburra]]'' Barclay
*''[[Datura stramonium]]'' L.
*''[[Datura wrightii]]'' Regel

Of the above, ''D. leichhardtii'' is close enough to ''D. pruinosa'' to merit demotion to a subspecies and likewise ''D. ferox'' and ''D. quercifolia'' are close enough in morphology to merit being subsumed in a single species. Furthermore, the Australian provenance of ''D. leichhardtii'', the Chinese provenance of ''D. ferox'', and the Afro-Asiatic provenance of ''D. metel'' have been cast into serious doubt, with the three species being almost certainly post-Columbian introductions to the regions to which they were originally thought native.<ref name="Symon-1991"/>

The case of ''D. metel'' is unique in that not only is the plant not a true species at all, but an assemblage of ancient [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] [[cultivar]]s created from ''D. innoxia'' in the Greater Antilles, but evidence is mounting that it was introduced to the Indian subcontinent no later than the second century CE &ndash; whether by natural or human agency is, as yet, unknown &ndash; making it one of the most ancient plant introductions (if not the most ancient) from the [[New World]] to the [[Old World]] (see [[Columbian Exchange]]).<ref name="Symon-1991">'Datura (Solanaceae) is a New World Genus' by D.E. Symon and L. Haegi in (page 197 of) ''Solanaceae III: Taxonomy Chemistry Evolution'', Editors J.G. Hawkes, R.N. Lester, M. Nee, & N. Estrada, published by The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Richmond, Surrey, UK for The Linnean Society of London 1991. {{ISBN|0-947643-31-1}}.</ref><ref name="Siklós-1993">{{cite journal |id={{INIST|3740667}} |last1=Siklós |first1=Bulcsu |title=Datura rituals in the ''Vajramahabhairava-Tantra'' |journal=Curare |date=1993 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=71–76 }} Republished as: {{cite journal |last1=Siklós |first1=Bulcsu |title=Datura rituals in the ''Vajramahabhairava-Tantra'' |journal=Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae |date=1994 |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=409–416 |jstor=23658487 }}</ref><ref name="Cavazos-2000">{{cite journal |last1=Cavazos |first1=Mario Luna |last2=Jiao |first2=Meijun |last3=Bye |first3=Robert |title=Phenetic analysis of Datura section Dutra (Solanaceae) in Mexico |journal=Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society |date=August 2000 |volume=133 |issue=4 |pages=493–507 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.2000.tb01592.x |doi-access=free }}</ref>

''D. arenicola'' is a remarkable new species, described only in 2013, of very restricted range, and so distinctive as to have merited the creation for it of the new section ''Discola'' [not to be confused with the species name ''D. discolor''] within the genus. The specific name ''arenicola'' means "loving (i.e. "thriving in") [[sand]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=D. Robert A. |title=Datura arenicola (Solanaceae): A New Species in the New Section Discola from Baja California Sur, Mexico |journal=Madroño |date=July 2013 |volume=60 |issue=3 |pages=217–228 |doi=10.3120/0024-9637-60.3.217 |s2cid=86630069 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/282758 |archive-date=6 May 2023 |access-date=24 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230506165307/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/282758 |url-status=live }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Image !! Scientific name !! Common name !! Distribution
|-
| || ''[[Datura arenicola]]'' <small>Gentry ex Bye & Luna</small> || Sand thorn-apple, Baja datura, [[El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve|Vizcaíno Desert]] datura || [[Baja California Sur]], Mexico
|-
| [[File:Datura ceratocaula.jpg|120px]] || ''[[Datura ceratocaula|D. ceratocaula]]'' <small>[[Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin|Jacq.]]</small>|| torna loco, Sister of [[Ololiuhqui]], swamp datura ||  Mexico. 
|-
|[[File:Whiteflower8.jpg|120px]] || ''[[Datura discolor|D. discolor]]'' <small>[[Johann Jakob Bernhardi|Bernh.]]</small> (syn. ''[[Datura kymatocarpa|D. kymatocarpa]]'', ''[[Datura reburra|D. reburra]]'')|| desert thorn-apple  ||[[Sonoran Desert]] of western North America
|-
|[[File:Datura ferox.JPG|120px]] ||  ''[[Datura ferox|D. ferox]]'' <small>[[Carl Linnaeus|L.]]</small>|| long-spined thorn-apple  ||southeastern China (disputed<ref name="Symon-1991"/>)
|-
|[[File:Datura inoxia (8482127654).jpg|120px]] || ''[[Datura innoxia|D. innoxia]]'' <small>[[Philip Miller|Mill.]]</small>|| thorn-apple, downy thorn-apple, Indian-apple, moonflower, ''toloatzin, toloache'' ||  Southwestern United States, Central and South America ([[Cosmopolitan distribution|cosmopolitan]] [[weed]])
|-
|[[File:Datura leichhardtii stamens.jpg|120px]] ||''[[Datura leichhardtii|D. leichhardtii]]'' <small>[[Ferdinand von Mueller|F.Muell.]] ex [[George Bentham|Benth.]]</small> (syn. ''D. pruinosa'')|| Leichhardt's datura  ||  from Mexico to Guatemala
|-
|[[File:Brugmansia metel syn Datura.png|120px]] || ''[[Datura metel|D. metel]]'' <small>L.</small>|| Hindu datura, Indian thorn-apple, devil's trumpet<ref name="Preissel-2002"/> ||  Asia, Africa (disputed<ref name="Symon-1991"/>)
|-
|[[File:Datura_quercifolia_flower.jpg|120px]] || ''[[Datura quercifolia|D. quercifolia]]'' <small>[[Carl Sigismund Kunth|Kunth]]</small>|| oak-leaved thorn-apple ||  Mexico and the Southwestern United States
|-
|[[File:Datura stramonium 003.JPG|120px]] || ''[[Datura stramonium|D. stramonium]]'' <small>L.</small> (syn. ''D. inermis'',  ''D. bernhardii'')||  jimsonweed, thorn-apple, devil's snare || Central America ([[Cosmopolitan distribution|cosmopolitan]] [[weed]])
|-
|[[File:Datura wrightii in Apple Valley, California 1.jpg|120px]] || ''[[Datura wrightii|D. wrightii]]'' <small>[[Eduard von Regel|Regel]]</small>|| sacred datura, western jimsonweed, California jimsonweed, Momoy, sacred thorn-apple, tolguacha, toloache  ||  Southwestern United States
|-
|}

American Brugmansia and Datura Society, Inc. (ABADS) is designated in the 2004 edition of the [[International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants]] as the official [[International Cultivar Registration Authority]] for ''Datura''. This role was delegated to ABADS by the [[International Society for Horticultural Science]] in 2002.

===Past classified species===
* ''[[Datura lanosa|D. lanosa]]''
* ''[[Datura suaveolens|D. suaveolens]]''