JIMSONWEED

annual, herbaceous, tropical plant (Datura stramonium) of the potato family (Solanaceae) that has become an introduced weed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. Its juices are poisonous, and it has a fairly unpleasant odour. Jimsonweed grows to a height of 1 to almost 2 m (up to 6 1/2 feet), has large, white or violet, trumpet-shaped flowers, and produces a large, spiny fruit to which the common name thornapple is sometimes applied. Commercially, it is the source of the alkaloidal drug hyoscyamine.