Datura stramonium

Jimson weed

Family: Solanaceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Jimson weed is a naturalized annual found in California Floristic Province and Mountain Province in sandy soils and open, often disturbed areas at elevations below 1,425 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces white or pale blue-purple flowers with spreading, long and narrow lobes reaching 6 to 9 centimeters in length. Growing up to 1.5 meters tall with erect stems that are nearly smooth or sparsely hairy, it forms a robust and distinctive plant. Its large ovate leaves measure 5 to 15 centimeters long, with coarse teeth and shallow lobes, creating a broad, irregular leaf shape. The fruit is a distinctive, erect capsule densely covered with prickles 3 to 15 millimeters long, which split open into four regular valves when mature.

Habitat: Sandy soils, open, often disturbed areas

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 1425 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc CaR, SNH), MP

California counties: Orange, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Stanislaus, Riverside, Kern, Lake, Ventura, Contra Costa, Monterey, Sonoma, Siskiyou, Alameda, Glenn, Mendocino, Santa Barbara, Marin, San Bernardino, Santa Cruz, Humboldt, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Kings, Yolo, Sacramento, Trinity, Butte, Tehama, Modoc, Amador, Napa, El Dorado, Colusa, San Mateo, San Joaquin

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.