Datura metel
Datura metel is a shrub-like annual (zone 5-7) or short-lived, shrubby perennial (zone 8-10), commonly known in Europe as Indian Thornapple, Hindu Datura, or Metel and in the U.S.A. as Devil's Trumpet or Angel's Trumpet. "Datura metel" is naturalised in all the warmer countries of the world - notably in India, where it is known by the ancient, Sanskrit-derived, Hindi name धतूरा ("dhatūra") -from which the genus name "Datura" is derived, and in Tamil as ஊமத்தை ("ūmattai"). The plant is cultivated worldwide, both as an ornamental and for its medicinal properties, the latter being due (like those of all "Datura" species) to its tropane alkaloid content. Like its hardier and smaller-flowered relative "Datura stramonium", it is now of widespread occurrence, although showing a preference for warmer climates and of more attractive appearance. "Datura metel" was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, but few botanically correct illustrations were made until after the New World was settled. The original home of the plant (long conjectured to have been India) is now known to have been somewhere in the Americas, probably the Greater Antilles. As late as 1992 it was still being claimed that the plant was "...native probably to the mountainous regions of Pakistan or Afghanistan westward..."