how can I best remove and destroy this plant?

Pick it up at ground level, pull until out of ground. Place in trash.

I want to err on the side of caution and remove all my vegetable plants

Um, why? Not necessary.

Dan

Get rid of the Datura and you'll be fine. I have lots of nieces and nephews of all ages, who like to 'help' me garden, so I understand your concern.

It sounds like your weeds got away from you, too. Mine are all over the kitchen garden, so I'll be pulling weeds for the next few weeks! LOL

Next year, try to keep an eye out for the datura plant, and pull it as soon as it appears. As long as the kids don't eat things out of the garden, without your permission, they'll be fine. I would show them the plant and explain that it tastes terrible and would make them very sick, so...don't eat it! Yucky!!! :)

Datura is not that poisonous. Now, the several yew shrubs I have in front of my house, those will kill if you just chew a twig. Because of the dense shade they cast, I put some of my mushroom logs under them, and I eat mushrooms from those logs many times a year. Yep, still kicking.

As others have stated, just pull the Datura up and throw it out if you don't want it. I don't see the reasoning behind moving vegetables though. It's not like the Datura roots will emit a toxin and all the other plants will absorb it.

I grow Daturas as an ornamental plant and have never had any problems with its toxins. Handling the plant hasn't caused anything to happen to me. I understand your concerns though.

Also, lots of plants are poisonous on some or all parts of the plant. Even tomato plants have a toxin in the leaves though it is mild.

I thought that plant name looked familiar! It belongs to the same family as potatoes, peppers, tobacco, etc. Yes the leaves are poisonous, but the flowers are beautiful. Don't pull it up - let it bloom. They are fantastic, similar to an Angel's Trumpet except their flowers grow down instead of up. It is not a weed - Daturas, at least IME, are above average hard to germinate.

If you really are concerned, pull it up and add it to your compost pile if you have one.

Perhaps you have a Pokeweed and not a Datura? They grow wild, can easily get five feet tall ad have small berries. Interesting plant - some people boil the leaves and eat them. Most web sites say this is flirting with suicide, that Pokeweed is very toxic unless the leaves are boiled twice, drained both times and then boiled again. A local produce store actually sold the greens - until I told them it was considered poisonous. They pulled it from the bins and didn't carry it this year at all.

Pokeweed grows everyplace, Datura would have had to be planted there last year or two years ago.

Mike

Wow! Thanks for all the replies! I looked at the pokeweed plant, and the plant is definitely not that - it looks exactly like this -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DaturaStramonium-plant-sm.jpg. I certainly didn't plant it, but it is growing right next to my okra plant, and for the longest time i thought it was another okra plant...

I don't have the worry about my kid eating any unknown fruit - I was more concerned about the sap or the fruit pulp or something falling on my vegetables (its providing a nice shade over my smaller okra plant and some tomatos as well..) and consuming that. Since I am pregnant as well, I wanted to take the necessary precautions.

I'm guessing datura is not that poisonous that I need to worry about anything that a good wash would not take care of.

Thanks for all the awesome replies!

IIRC, Datura stramonium was one of the ingredients in a salve made on the Salamanca, NY Indian Reservation. My grandparents used to keep that salve on hand and used it on small wounds. They referred to it as a "drawing salve". Apparently it was thought to "draw out" the bad stuff. I just did a Google search and found Salamanca Salve #3 still available.

Just thought you'd like to know. :-)

Jim

If it hasn't gone to seed I'd just compost it. People plant oleander all over the place around here, and that's the most deadly plant in the world. Sometimes I find hemlock, there's also poison oak all over and beladonna lilies - the kids know better than to even touch most plants without my okay.

See:
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/dangerous_plants_checklist.html
Angels trumpet is only in the 'treat with caution' category.

Brugmansia or Angel trumpet can cause temporary blindness just from handling the sap when pruning.
Teens have been using it and Datura to promote visions or trips somewhat like LSD but if too much is eaten they can cause death.

promethean_spark wrote:

"People plant oleander all over the place around here, and that's the most deadly plant in the world."

promethean - I would like to have a link to the study, or the paper, where you read that Oleanders are "the most deadly plants in the world." I have them planted all over my property as we get high winds here and I use them for windbreaks for my growing areas. I've even hot composted their leaves. I trim them, handle them, and crawl all around them and have never had a problem. I know that all of their parts are poisonous, but then I don't ingest them or use them for anything. They are beautiful when they are in full bloom. Thanks!

Greg
Southern Nevada

The most important thing you need to get from all of this, cowthree, is that your Datura plant will not transfer its toxicity though the soil or through the air or any of the means you've mentioned.

Common sense goes a long way when it comes to plants that happen to have some poisonous parts. Shall we talk about your tomatoes, for example? :-)

Greg, I doubt that oleanders are the most poisonous plant in the world, but they are absolutely poisonous. Children have died from using oleander sticks to roast weenies. So enjoy their looks, but don't eat them.

I wonder what really is the most poisonous plant. My guess is caster bean. Anybody know for sure?

oregonwoodsmoke - I know that Oleanders are not the most poisonous plant in the world but I was wondering where promethean_spark got their information to make that bold statement. There are many plants out there that you wouldn't want to eat, a lot of them common household plants.

Greg
Southern Nevada

Maybe you could save the seeds and use them for a trade item. It looks like an interesting plant.
{{gwi:110505}}

You have gotten good advice in the posts above. Jimson weed (Datura stramonium) is the native form of datura. Readily self seeds and like most weeds is difficult to eradicate. In small amounts ingested it is a hallucinogen. It will kill (both the leaves and seeds). The name came from settlers at the Jamestown colony using the leaves as greens. Killed a significant number. Some of the drug culture today use the seeds as a hallucinogen. The cultivated versions are called Devils Trumpets. They grew all over the cultivated fields when I was a kid, and I still have some in my vegetable patches. Useful as a trap plant to keep leaf footed bugs off the okra.

Here is a link that might be useful: History of Jimson Weed

sandhill farms here's an article for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: 5 most deadly plants in the world

Thanks taz6122. What's interesting is that tomatoes are also of the Nightshade family.

Greg
Southern Nevada

If you have ever put cow manure in your garden there is a good chance you will have Jimson Weed. I don't know if they eat it or it's there through some other action, but I always have a bunch of it sprout when I use cow manure. I also seem to get Belladonna from cow manure. Just pull them up (although the Jimson Weed is beautiful when it flowers) and your vegetables will be fine.
JMO,
Tom

Hey, thanks!

I had hundreds of these spring up from some municipal compost, but hadn't gotten around to IDing them yet, so this is very helpful. (I wonder if someone was intentionally growing them?)

And I will make sure not to eat them :)

~emmers

Oleander is very poisonous to horses, don't know about people. Yew, daphne, rhododendrons, castor beans, lily of the valley, even sweet peas and foxglove are all dangerous around small children...and horses.

If they're your own children, you can educate them about plants, but when they're visiting children, I find it safer not to use any of them. My mom grows many of them, so if I miss a certain plant, I go up and visit her garden :)

If you still have datura plants, please let me know, because I am interested in purchasing one. My email adress is plantguy95@mchsi.com

I get those things in my garden every year as they grow wild in my area. The flowers on mine were purple and the plant grew to small trees (4 ft). When I finally decided to whack it down, the smell coming from the cut stems ruined it's chances of growing anywhere near me again. That, plus I stepped on a seed pod in my bare feet (I rarely wear shoes in the garden) and I was pretty mad afterwards. No thanks.

Abby

I don't mean to be disagreeable, but I first learned about Jimsonweed through an article in the Reader's Digest, around 1980. A whole family had become violently ill after eating garden tomatoes for dinner. An investigation revealed that Jimsonweed growing in the garden had crossbred with the tomatoes. Their fruit was highly poisonous! I am here this evening because my husband asked me about a large weed that had sprung up on the edge of our tomato patch and, Googling it, I found it to be Jimsonweed! I will assume that, as it is the first specimen to grow in my garden, it has not had an opportunity to cross-pollinate or graft, but I will call the cooperative extension tomorrow, just to be on the safe side. Cowthree, I see that this post is at several years old. Did you ever have any further issues?

It’s 2020 I live in Virginia and I’m finding this plant also known as Jimson weed rapidly growing and taking over my farm. I noticed a few a year or two ago but now they’re everywhere. I started pulling them out of the ground ... one of the seed pods (green spikes) went through my glove and penetrated my skin. It was like my flesh was being eaten. It took over a month for the wound to heal. Apparently, it’s an hallucinogenic. Kids eat them to get high and as of now it’s not illegal. Crazy huh? If too much is ingested it’s possible you could overdose and die. I found one plant where the seed pod turned brown and had opened up looks like that’s when the seeds come out. 😝

Just wanted to add that cross pollination between datura and tomatoes....or any other member of the Solanceae family.....is extremely unlikely. While in the same general plant family, they are of separate genera and unintended (not man made) cross pollination between 2 different genera is very uncommon! Both are self pollinating anyway, which makes natural cross pollination even more unlikely. Even if they could successfully cross pollinate, there would be no impact on the current plant but only with any subsequent offspring from seed. And intergeneric (between 2 different genera) hybrids tend to be sterile as well.

There is some serious doubt about the veracity of that Reader's Digest article :-) Or we are missing some other relevant information.