Species
+

Datura wrightii Regel

Sacred Datura, Sacred thorn-apple (EN), Sacred thorn-apple, hairy thornapple, Western Jimson weed, Western Jimsonweed

Climate known 73 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Datura wrightii, commonly known as sacred datura, is a poisonous perennial plant species and ornamental flower of the family Solanaceae native to the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. It is sometimes used as a hallucinogen due to its psychoactive alkaloids. D. wrightii is classified as an anticholinergic deliriant.

Text from Wikipedia, “Datura wrightii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Datura

Datura is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine-flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil's trumpets or mad apple. Other English common names include moonflower, devil's weed and hell's bells. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Datura”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
Regel
Native to
New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast +1
Wild records
352 in range· 71 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
386mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jul 61 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–52DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a rainy season, December to February and July to October in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer. Habitat rain 386 mm a year, wettest July at 61 mm, driest May at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Datura innoxia subsp. quinquecuspida (Torr.) A.S.Barclay; Datura innoxia subsp. quinquecuspidata (Torr.) A.S.Barclay; Datura innoxia var. quinquecuspidata (Torr.) A.S.Barclay; Datura lanosa Barclay; Datura lanosa Barclay ex Bye and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a rainy season, December to February and July to October in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (290 mm of 386 mm) falls in December to February and July to October, whose mean temperature, 17.7 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 18.1 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and June to August.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 386 mm a year, wettest July at 61 mm, driest May at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

386 mm a year at the habitat, 290 mm of it December to February and July to October. Wettest month July at 61 mm, driest May at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 272 mm to 907 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -6.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.5 °C, the absolute minimum -17.6 °C, about 39 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -3.0 °C to 10.2 °C), warmest day 32.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 42 to 52% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 16 °C in Dec to 33 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 386 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 251 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 21–52RH 42–52 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 251 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 9–2018 / 12–2220 / 16–2525 / 18–2829 / 21–3332 / 24–3633 / 26–3632 / 26–3530 / 24–3325 / 21–2920 / 14–2316 / 9–20
Night °C4 / -3–105 / -1–118 / 2–1211 / 5–1515 / 10–1919 / 14–2321 / 17–2520 / 16–2518 / 14–2214 / 8–179 / 2–134 / -3–11
Rain mm32 / 15–5730 / 11–6927 / 7–7318 / 8–6811 / 4–10717 / 2–11261 / 3–11059 / 3–10644 / 6–8429 / 16–10523 / 12–7235 / 17–60
DLI23 / 19–2629 / 23–3238 / 29–4146 / 35–4850 / 37–5352 / 41–5346 / 43–5042 / 40–4639 / 33–4032 / 26–3425 / 20–2821 / 17–24
RH %51 / 48–5850 / 46–5846 / 43–5943 / 38–5942 / 36–6143 / 36–6050 / 46–6152 / 49–6250 / 46–6148 / 44–5848 / 45–5851 / 48–58

Each figure is the median across the 251 grid cells holding the 336 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1141:1663 (32.925, -96.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 251 distinct grid cells holding the 336 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1141:1663 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 33.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected +1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 185 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Corse, France, Sardegna, Spain, Greece, Italy, Romania, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Tunisia, New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., West Virginia, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.194, -110.985 · in the densest population, 175 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 352 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 71 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 1498 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 352 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Datura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightiiDatura wrightii

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) czernybug, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jared Shorma, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Datura wrightii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Flower discrimination by pollinators in a dynamic chemical environment
Jeffrey A. Riffell, Eli Shlizerman, Elischa Sanders, Leif Abrell (2014) · Science
Behavioral consequences of innate preferences and olfactory learning in hawkmoth–flower interactions
Jeffrey A. Riffell, Rubén Alarcón, Leif Abrell, Goggy Davidowitz (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Dietary phosphorus affects the growth of larval Manduca sexta
Marc Perkins, H. Arthur Woods, Jon F. Harrison, James J. Elser (2004) · Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology
Neural correlates of behavior in the moth Manduca sexta in response to complex odors
Jeffrey A. Riffell, Hong Lei, John G. Hildebrand (2009) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Trumpet Flowers of the Sonoran Desert: Floral Biology ofPeniocereusCacti and SacredDatura
Robert A. Raguso, Cynthia Henzel, Stephen L. Buchmann, Gary Paul Nabhan (2003) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Mutagenesis of odorant coreceptor Orco fully disrupts foraging but not oviposition behaviors in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta
Richard A. Fandino, Alexander Haverkamp, Sonja Bisch-Knaden, Jin Zhang (2019) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Feeding-induced rearrangement of green leaf volatiles reduces moth oviposition
Silke Allmann, Anna Späthe, Sonja Bisch-Knaden, Mario Kallenbach (2013) · eLife
Insect eggs protected from high temperatures by limited homeothermy of plant leaves
Kristi Potter, Goggy Davidowitz, H. Arthur Woods (2009) · Journal of Experimental Biology
Antagonistic effects of floral scent in an insect–plant interaction
Carolina E. Reisenman, Jeffrey A. Riffell, Elizabeth A. Bernays, John G. Hildebrand (2010) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences
Context- and scale-dependent effects of floral CO 2 on nectar foraging by Manduca sexta
Joaquín Goyret, Poppy Markwell, Robert A. Raguso (2008) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Datura 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 58 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.