What looks like an innocent looking flower with a pleasant scent, blooming only at night, is in actuality, a noxious, invasive and deadly plant. Datura stramonium, more commonly known as Jimson Weed, Devil’s snare, or Devil’s trumpet, is a member of the nightshade family and is believed to have originated in Mexico.
Horticulturalists say the weed is a free branching, annual herb that can grow up to five feet or 150 centimetres tall, with long, smooth and toothed leaves that have both a bitter and nauseating taste if ingested.
“The plant stands higher than the canola it has been found sharing fields with and has not been seen in the area before,” Marilyn Flock, agricultural fieldman for Barrhead county said.
“We’re still looking into how it got into the county, but they should all be pulled and incinerated,” Flock said.
“In our case, there are about three dozen plants and they’ll all be taken care of in short order,” she said, and added that if the work is carried out before any seeds have matured, that should be the end of the problem.
“We suspect that this is the first year for the weed in our area and as an annual, it is spread entirely by seed and not through a root-based system,” she said. “If it is allowed to proliferate, we are looking at years of trying to get this problem under control.”
According to Flock, one of the main concerns is that while people are harvesting their crops the plant will get mixed in with feed for animals.
“If it is used as a feed source, it only takes about point one per cent of the body weight of an animal, when ingested, to kill it,” she said, and added that all parts of the plant are poisonous.
Anyone who sees this weed should use gloves when handling it, especially the seeds or flowers. For more information, please call Marilyn Flock at the Barrhead County office at 780-674-3331.
