Datura wrightii
Datura is a herbaceous plant that grows in the Val Verde area and is a member of the Solanaceae family or Nightshade. It has a white trumpet shaped or funnelform corolla that matures into a spiny capsule that looks like a spiny pod. These seed pods have been used since the mid archaic period about 2500 BC to induce the "Ecstatic Trance" of shamans during their ceremonies and were recorded on the shelter walls in the form of pictographs. Its seeds contain atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine and intoxication has been described as "red as a beet", "dry as a bone" "hot as a hare" and "mad as a hatter". It causes delusions, visions, hallucinations and death. It was largely replaced by the safer Peyote cactus for inducing trance states by the Huichols who visited this area and left their art in The oldest library in North America, the pictographs on shelter walls in Val Verde, County, Texas.
© Emile Abbott
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