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Datura stramonium L.
Synonym
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Datura stramonium var. canescens
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Family
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Solanaceae
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Local name
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English
- Thorn Apple, Datura
Malayalam
- Ummam
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Flowering and fruiting period
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July-September
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Distribution
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Widely
distributed most parts of the temperate regions of the world
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Distribution in Kerala
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All
Districts
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Habitat
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Scrub
jungles and wastelands
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Endemic/Exotic
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Exotic
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Uses
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Datura seeds and leaves are
antiasthmatic, antispasmodic, hypnotic and narcotic. The paste of roasted
leaves is applied over the area to relieve pain. The oil extract from the
datura seed is used to treat baldness and stimulate the growth of hair.
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Key
Botanical Characters:
Subshrubs, 60-120 cm tall, branched, pubescent;
the branches often purplish. Leaves alternate, simple, ovate or broadly so,
sinuately dentate, minutely puberulose, cuneate. Flowers single or paired,
axilary, white; Calyx tubular, 5-dentate, puberulous and persistent; lobes
6-9 mm long, strongly reflexed in fruit, apiculate. Corolla white or purplish
suffused; limb up to 8 cm broad, shallowly 5-lobed. Stamens 5; anthers ± 5 mm
long, with the lobes narrow oblong, usually white. Capsule erect, long,
ovoid, spiny and densely pubescent, splitting by 4 valves; spines up to 5 mm
long; seeds many, reniform, reticulate-foveolate and black.
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