Datura stramonium does grow in the NW US

[ironmics]

SWIM was out at his usual swimming hole in Oregon the other day and he saw a weird plant that he though was manroot, but it was more like a plant than a vine. He had been researching various ethnobotanicals, and had completely avoided datura, because of the dangers. Then he saw a picture of datura stramonium, and OMG it was the same thing. So today he went out and picked some leaves, dried flowers and took 250+ seeds out of an open seed pod. He is still very apprehensive on whether or not to take any of it, but is interested in smoking very low ammounts of flower(maybe half of one). Well anyway he read several places that datura will not grow in the NW, but has proven that wrong.

[Jonah]

that's very interesting, do you know which variety it was?
could you post pictures, or perhaps pictures of a similar variety?

[ironmics]

It is definitely datura stramonium, I could not find any other daturas that were even remotely similar.

[Neosapien]

I've seen Daturas all over the Pac NW, cultivated in yards and such. Most are metels of one variety or another. My local nursery had some beautiful purple belle blanch beckoning this summer.
Have yet to see naturalized stramonium though I wouldn't be surprised.
Smoking destroys many of the alkaloids but it does have the advantage of not posing much danger of putting you in the mental ward.
It did have swim howling at the moon convinced that she was about to become a werewolf. That, and a nasty cough for a few days are about the only real dangers of smoking.