# Fruit tree or weed?



## lurnin2farm (Jun 10, 2012)

This is growing out of my compost pile. I thought at first it could be a lychee because I threw some old ones in the a few months ago but seems to fast to produce a 3' tree with fruit. They are also a tropical fruit and this is southern ohio and we have had a really cool summer thus far.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Weed!!
Datura Stramonium!
Kill it!
Poisonous!


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## lurnin2farm (Jun 10, 2012)

Thank you


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

The common name is jimson weed. It's a member of the nightshade family.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Holy heck...you can sell it! Not really it is a hallucinogenic drug that the kids in the southwest sometimes get into. Please kill it. Thanks, sis


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## handymama (Aug 22, 2014)

My dad said there were people here in TN that used to smoke the seeds in a pipe. He knew a guy who did that and went insane. Guy has been in a home for twenty years now. Its bad stuff.


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## lurnin2farm (Jun 10, 2012)

I did a search on it when Chickenista told me what it was. Looks like it has some good properties as well but nothing I want to mess around with. A lethal dosage is pretty small. Just happy I didnt try the seeds. I may have been gone for a couple weeks or more.......


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## handymama (Aug 22, 2014)

They'd be coming to take you away, ha ha....


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yes, it does have some good properties, but there are other plants that have the same good properties without any of the dangers.
Pick your herbal allies.
Datura is just not a good one, really.

And..egads! Don't be sampling the local goods all willy nilly!
There aren't many bad ones out there, but the ones that are can pack a whallop.
The ER folks would have a heck of a time figuring out what was wrong with you.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

Someone on a horse board I'm on had been letting it grow in their horse pasture because it had such pretty flowers. And someone else ended up in the ER after mowing a bunch of it down. I try to keep it out of my field. 

Just an interesting fact. The name Jimson weed comes from Jamestown weed. During the 1600s, it was eaten by soldiers in a salad in Jamestown, Va. And those that ate it suffered delirium and hallucinations.


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## handymama (Aug 22, 2014)

Flowers are pretty on it. Hummingbirds like it.


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