Brugmansia Pers.
Unarmed soft-wooded shrubs or small trees. Lvs simple, ± hairy, large, entire, petiolate. Fls solitary in axils of upper lvs, pendulous or at least inclined downwards. Calyx 5-toothed, nearly regular or strongly irregular and spathaceous, never circumscissile. Corolla very large, ± broad-cylindric to funnelform, white, yellow, or red; lobes 5, usually reflexing, usually ± subulate. Stamens 5, included, adnate to tube in lower part. Stigma 2-lobed. Fr. dry and very tardily and irregularly dehiscent, pendulous, smooth. Seeds large, c. 7-12 × 5-8 mm, many.
Key
Probably 4 or 5 spp., but a number of infraspecific or hybrid taxa have often been considered as separate spp., tropical America, mostly in the Andes. Naturalised spp. 3.
Brugmansia is often included in Datura. All Brugmansia spp. yield drugs with psychoactive or hallucinogenic properties. The true taxonomic status of named entities is often uncertain because most are unknown in the wild, having been maintained in cultivation by Indian peoples in the N. Andes for use in religious ceremonies.
