Sacred Datura (Toloache)

Datura innoxia, often spelled inoxia, is a flowering plant in the nightshade family, known as pricklyburr, recurved thorn-apple, downy thorn-apple, moonflower and toloache, among other names. It is only rarely called sacred datura, a name applied more often to the related Datura wrightii. It is native to the southwestern United States and Central and South America. It is a tuberous-rooted subshrub of 0.6 to 1.5 metres with grey hairy stems and leaves, white trumpet flowers that open at night, and a spiny egg-shaped capsule. The Aztecs called it toloatzin and toloaxihuitl, meaning the plant with the nodding head, and used it long before the Spanish conquest as a poultice for wounds. Although the Aztecs warned against madness, many Native Americans have used the plant as an entheogen for hallucinations and rites of passage. All parts contain dangerous levels of tropane alkaloids and can be fatal.