FoI
Fierce Thorn Apple
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Fierce Thorn Apple
aturalized Photo: Narendra Joshi
Common name: Fierce Thorn Apple, large thorn-apple, long-spine thorn-apple • Hindi: धतूरा Dhatura • Tamil: Mungil oomatay
Botanical name: Datura ferox    Family: Solanaceae (Potato family)

Fierce Thornapple is a species of Datura, native to southern Europe and China. Its fruit has unusally long thorns or spikes. The fruit is a red-brown color when ripe. It is grown as an ornamental plant. Every part of the plant is poisonous and is fatal if ingested. It is a stout annual herb, smooth or sparsely velvety with non-glandular hairs. Mature leaves vary from broadly-ovate and somewhat angular to rounded-triangular, the lamina up to 14 cm long and 16 cm wide, with a few shallow usually toothed or sinuate lobes. Sepals are 4-7 mm long. Flower 4-6 cm long, white, 5-lobed, the lobes ending in a point 1-2 mm long. Stamens do not protrude out. Style is to 3 cm long.

Identification credit: Narendra Joshi Photographed at Sangli, Maharashtra.

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