Safed Dhatura / Datura
Datura innoxia
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Safed Dhatura
Identify Safed Dhatura by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a undershrub habit.
- Confirm leaf type: Pinnately compound.
- Confirm leaf shape: Elliptic.
- Confirm flower colour: White.
- Confirm fruit type: Capsule.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Rajasthan and nearby regions.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Datura innoxia
- Genus
- Datura
- Family
- Solanaceae
- Habit
- Undershrub
- Native to
- Mexico
- Distribution
- Introduced in most parts of the world
- Found in India
- Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Diu, Odisha, Punjab, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Puducherry
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf type
- Pinnately compoundrecordedLeaflets are arranged in rows along a central stalk, like a feather.“It has elliptic smooth-edged leaves with pinnate venation.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf shape
- EllipticrecordedWidest at the middle, tapering evenly at both ends.“It has elliptic smooth-edged leaves with pinnate venation.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Leaf surface
- GlabrousrecordedSmooth, hairless.“It has elliptic smooth-edged leaves with pinnate venation.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Characters marked “recorded” are for Safed Dhatura itself; the rest are typical of the Solanaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Whiterecorded
- Fruit type
- CapsulerecordedA dry fruit from a fused ovary that splits open at maturity to release seeds.“The fruit is an egg-shaped spiny capsule, about 5 cm in diameter.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Cyme
- Fruit
- Berry
Characters marked “recorded” are for Safed Dhatura itself; the rest are typical of the Solanaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Hindi
- सफ़ैद धतूरा Safed dhatura
- Tamil
- ஊமத்தை
- Telugu
- ఉమ్మెత్త
- Malayalam
- Ummata, ഡാറ്റുറ ഇൻനോക്സിയ
- Marathi
- धोतरा Dhotara, धुत्रो Dhutro
- Gujarati
- ધતુરો
About Safed Dhatura
Datura (Datura innoxia) belongs to the Solanaceae family, where it grows as a low shrub. In India it has been recorded in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and 20 other states. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Uses
It is long used in traditional medicine and planted as an ornamental. Those medicinal uses are traditional attributions, not medical advice. Parts of this plant are reported as poisonous — treat it as unsafe to eat and wash your hands after handling.
In culture
It is treated as sacred and appears in worship.
Solanaceae
Nightshade/Tomato family
Safed Dhatura belongs to the Solanaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Solanaceae familySnap it. Know it.
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Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
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