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Brugmansia Pers., Synopsis Plantarum 1: 292 (1805); named after Sebald
Justinus Brugmans
(1763–1879), Dutch botanist and Professor of Botany at Leiden.
Type species: Brugmansia candida Pers.
Datura p.p., auctt. (see Haegi 1976).
Perennial
shrubs or small trees to 4 m, pubescent with simple, non-glandular hairs,
without spines. Leaves
alternate, simple, entire or lobed, petiolate.
Flowers solitary in forks of stems, bisexual, actinomorphic, pendent. Calyx tubular, the lobes
2-5, sometimes spathe-like,either
falling as a whole or persistent in fruit. Corolla
funnel-shaped, rarely multiple, white or variously coloured; limb shortly
5–lobed or appearing 10–lobed, folded and twisted in bud. Stamens 5, more or less equal or didynamous
with two and three stamens of similar height, inserted in lower half of
corolla-tube; filaments hairy at base. Anthers bilocular, basifixed, dehiscing
by longitudinal slits, free or fused. Ovary 2–, or
apparently 4–, locular; stigma of 2-3 elliptic
surfaces at apex of style. Fruit usually a fusiform
capsule, more rarely globose, 4–valved, opening
regularly or irregularly from apex. Seeds flattened, corky, angular or very
approximately D-shaped. Angel's Trumpets.
Generally
recognised as consisting of 5 or 6 species from South
America but with a number of hybrids of known origin. Despite its wide cultivation, at the time of the Flora of Australia
treatment there were no records of Brugmansia having naturalised in Australia. Now
there are sporadic records from northern NSW and SW Qld
of two species having escaped from the garden environment, one the species B. suaveolens
and the other the hybrid referred to as B. x candida. For differences between the
species see below since they have not been distinguished further in the
key.
T.E. Lockwood, Generic recognition of Brugmansia. Bot. Mus. Leafl. Harv. Univ. 23:
273-83 (1973); L. Haegi, Taxonomic account of Datura L. (Solanaceae)
in Australia
with a note on Brugmansia Pers., Austral. J. Bot. 24: 415–435
(1976).
Datura and Brugmansia - how they differ
Brugmansia has often been confused with Datura. The two genera are easily
distinguished by the long-lived, softly woody bushes reaching up to 4 m
high for Brugmansia as
opposed to the short-lived, summer flowering annuals of Datura. In addition Brugmansia has pendent flowers on 3-6 cm
long pedicels and non spiny fruits while Datura has erect flowers on 0.5-1.5 cm long pedicels
and spiny fruits (Haegi 1976).
Additional
information and images on the web
The American Brugmansia & Datura Society maintains a comprehensive
website for the two genera. However the further information provided on this
site with respect to differences between the two genera as well as keys for
identification of the species and images showing the internal anatomy of the
flowers is no longer freely accessible. Both B. suaveolens and B.
x candida are treated on this site.
B.
suaveolens and B. x candida can be distinguished by the spathaceous
calyx (split down one side) and recurved corolla
lobes of the latter compared with the 5-toothed calyx and non-recurving corolla lobes of B. suaveolens. They are further distinguished by
the fused anthers of B.
suaveolens while those of B. x candida are free. B.suaveolens also has a much narrower corolla
tube where it exits the calyx when compared with B. x candida.
See Haegi (1976) for a table of the differences between these
two species and also B. sanguinea,
the other commonly
cultivated species in Australia.
Both species are also compared on the Cook Islands Biodiversity and
Natural Heritage site, the source of the photographs shown above.
For
further information about B.suaveolens
see the
Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER) site, the Flora of Australia Online site for its
occurrence on Norfolk Island and the PlantNET site for
its occurrence in NSW.
Further information for B. x candida in NSW can be seen on the PlantNET site and
in the Pacific on the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER) site.
