English: Brazil's white angel trumpet; Angel's tears; Snowy angel’s trumpet.
Local names: Maikoa; Huanduc; Maikiua; Tompeta del jucio; Tsuaak; Toe; Wahashupa; Peji; Bikut; Ohuetagi; Ain-vai; Baikua; Canachiari; Ishauna.
Clades:
Solanaceae.
Region: south eastern Brazil, thought to be extinct in the wild; introduced in South America, Central America, Mexico, California, Greece, Florida.
Habitat: coastal rainforests of south-east Brazil; altitude below 1,000 m; river banks, forest edges with warm temperatures, high humidity, heavy rainfall; intolerant of frost; need a little protection from the wind, the hottest afternoon sun; organically rich soil, frequent water, heavy fertilizer when in full growth.
Ecology: butterfly Placidula euryanassa uses
Brugmansia suaveolens as one of its main larval foods, using the tropane alkaloids as a defense.
Content: tropane alkaloids, scopolamine (hyoscine), hyoscyamine, atropine.
Toxicity: all parts are poisonous, especially the seeds and leaves.
Use: ornamental; ritually, as an entheogen; to increase the potency of
Ayahuasca; by malevolent sorcerers or bad shamans to take advantage of unsuspecting tourists to steal their energy and power.
BotanyTender, semi-woody shrub or small tree; 3 to 5 m tall; young seedling grows straight up on usually a single stalk to 80 to 150 cm high and then fork and start flowering.
Stem: many-branched trunk.
Leaves: large, semi-evergreen; oval; to 25 cm long, 15 cm wide, larger when in the shade.
Flowers: sweetly fragrant; yellow or white, trumpet-shaped; remarkably beautiful and fragrant; ± 30 cm long; corolla slightly recurved to 5 main points, 1 to 3 cm long, always curved outwards; hang downward, fully pendulous up to nearly horizontal.
Name: suaveolens means “with a sweet fragrance”.
Pollination: by moths,
TaxonomyFirst discovered by Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland. At first described by Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1809 as Datura suaveolens. In 1823, Friedrich von Berchtold and Jan Presl transferred these to
Brugmansia suaveolens.