Are there any other plants with similar properties to Datura?
Genus Brugmansia, also knows as the tree daturas, used to be considered part of the genus Datura. After careful consideration, student of R.E. Schultes and esteemed botanist Timothy Lockwood but the debate to rest in 1979 (The Ethnobotany of Brugmansia. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1(2):147-164). Brugmansias have flowers which more-or-less hang down while Datura flowers more-or-less point upward. Genus Solandra is also very similar in morphology and alkaloid content to Datura. See the article Yerba del Diablo for a description of Solandra and Datura in Huichol mythology. Solandra flowers, like those of Brugmansia, can often change colors over several days. This would surely have been a sign of power to ancient peoples. Also, the so-called “witching herbs” Atropa belladona (Deadly Nightshade), Hyoscamus sp. (Henbane), and Mandragora sp. (Mandrake) are members of the Solanaceae family and contain tropane alkaloids. It has been said that legends of mystical flight and tranformation into a
