Family: Solanaceae
Datura ferox
Citation:
L., Amoen. Acad. 3:403 (1756).
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: Fierce (or long-spine) thornapple.
Description:
Stout bushy annual herb 0.2-1 m tall, glabrous or sparsely pubescent with non-glandular hairs; leaves from broadly ovate and angular to rounded-triangular, 8.5-14 x 6-16 cm, coarsely, irregularly and shallowly lobed, some of the 3 or 4 lobes toothed or sinuate.
Flowers 4.5-6 cm long; corolla white; lobes 5, separated by distinct sinuses; stigma borne below the anthers.
Capsule erect, ellipsoid or broadly so, 2-4 x 2-3 cm (excluding the spines), dehiscing by 4 entire valves; spines 40-60, stout, sharp, markedly shorter towards the capsule base, the longest at least half the length of the capsule; seeds black or grey, 4-4.8 mm long.
| Flowering branch, spreading corolla lobes, fruit and seed.
|
Image source: fig. 562A in Jessop J.P. & Toelken H.R. (Ed.) 1986. Flora of South Australia (4th edn).
|
Published illustration:
Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 585).
Distribution:
|
Widespread weed usually found in scattered populations in agricultural and pastoral districts, especially along perennial watercourses and in irrigated summer crops.
S.Aust.: GT, FR, EA, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE. All States. Native to China; widely distributed throughout warm regions of the world.
|
Conservation status:
naturalised
Flowering time: summer.
|
SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
|
Biology:
Natural hybrids with D. stramonium are known to occur.
Author:
Not yet available
|