Datura innoxia classification vs Datura wrightti

Discussion in 'Plants: Nomenclature and Taxonomy' started by Unregistered, Mar 31, 2005.

  1. Hello there,

    I have a question that has arisen in regards to my research. I am a graduate at New Mexico State University and I am studying Datura innoxia. I am close to my graduation date and it how now come to question whether I did study Datura innoxia. A taxonomist has determined that my plant is Datura wrighttii. However, he is looking at a wild plant that was brought into our greenhouse. I ordered my seeds from a company based out of Seattle. What I would like is to see if anyone has a taxonomic key to discribe both innoxia and wrighttii. Or possibly journal publications regarding such issues. Thanks...

    contact: Yancey
     
  2. Linda Jennings

    Linda Jennings Active Member 10 Years

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    Hello Yancy,
    My sympathies go out to you as I know many grad students who have run into this problem before (including myself). There seems to be a major rearrangement of names going on here due to auct non. (This means that the plant name is incorrect due to a misidentification.) If you go to plants.usda.gov and put in Datura, you can see how many names have changed due to this auct non., but they do show D. innoxia, D. inoxia and D. wrightii are all still in use. I also contacted a friend (Mark) who is a Botanist down in Arizona and this was his reply.

    The Datura question is a tough one, with several different problems in resolving it. First, I looked on the Plants Database and found that there are supposedly two species of Datura he could be referring to--one called D. innoxia and the other called D. inoxia. Neither is native to the U.S. To confuse things further, the Jepson Manual actually contains a note at the end of the description for D. wrightii, saying that it might be the same as D. inoxia. Second, neither the Plants Database or the Flora of North America lists D. innoxia as existing in the wild in the U.S., so there don't appear to be any floras which contain both that and D. wrightii and tell how to distinguish them. D. inoxia, though, is supposed to exist in a couple of states where D. wrightii also lives, so if this is the same plant in the study (a big assumption, and probably false), try either the "Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas" (Radford et al., 1964) or the "Flora of Canada" (Scoggan, 1978-79), there could be some distinguishing characteristics. If the student is sure to be studying D. innoxia, and not D. inoxia, then this option is of course useless.

    It would seem to me that the most sensible thing to do would be to contact the company from which the seeds were bought and find out where they collected them, how confident they are in their i.d., etc.

    Finally, I did a quick search on Google Scholar and found several references which might help. The most promising is:
    D’Arcy, W. G. (1991). The Solanaceae since 1976, with a review of its biogeography. Pages 75-137 in: J. G. Hawkes, R. N. Lester, M. Nee, and N. Estrada (eds.), Solanaceae III: taxonomy, chemistry, evolution. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K. Pages 75-137
    END

    I did the check of the Flora of Canada and Manual of the Vascular Flora of the Carolinas as suggested by Mark, but only D. meteloides is described in both, with note to D. innoxia but no descriptions or explainations. Datura meteloides has unfortunately been classified by Index Kewinsis (a database of plant names with bibliographic references compiled by Royal Botanic Garden Kew) as D. wrightii, whereas Royal Horticultural Society Plant Finder classifies D. meteloides as D. inoxia. Yikes!
    We have the following references available in our library:
    Solanaceae, biology and systematics / edited by William G. D'Arcy
    QK495.S7 S65 1986
    The Biology and taxonomy of the Solanaceae / editors J. G. Hawkes, R. N....
    QK495.S7 B56 1979
    Check your library and see if they have these. If they do not, just reply back to the forum and I will go to our library and check them out and see what they have to say.
     
  3. Linda,

    I would like to thank you for your reply. I'll be looking at those sources you mentioned. We actually have one of those sources here. Funny thing though, we found some other sources that state D. innoxia is native to the southwest, especially New Mexico where I'm doing my graduate studies. I did actually talk to the company from which I ordered my seeds from, and they said their classifications is based on the sources were they obtained the seeds to begin with. Again thank you for your response

    Yancey
     
  4. First i would like to express my sympathy for your problem and hope u will got the solution for sooner .I am currently working with the medicinal research center here in our university called University of Asmara, Asmara,Eritrea.And i have collected and even take a photo of the Datura innoxia which looks like the Datura staramonium except it has white latex on its leaves .I have been working as a graduate assistant for two years and still i am here."Information is power " and "sharing it will improve the life" lets work hand to hand for the betterment of our world.if you want to cantact me please Pm with temesgen_2@hotmail.com.
     
  5. Kada

    Kada Active Member 10 Years

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  6. Durgan

    Durgan Contributor 10 Years

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    http://Devilstrumpet.notlong.com Pictures of this plant. This won't confirm your problem, but there are some pictures of the supposedly named Datura innoxia.

    Durgan.
     
  7. David in L A

    David in L A Active Member 10 Years

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    In Phytologia 61(3): 204-206, 'Datura lanosa, a new species of Datura from Mexico', Robert Bye gives a key to distinguish D. inoxia, D. wrightii and D. lanosa. He first separates inoxia from the other two: innoxia- lower leaf surface softly pilose, 'venation of the leaves tending to be strongly pinnate with the veinlets inconspicuos; exterior of corolla usually glabrous' versus exterior of corolla puberulent & veinlets of leaves 'more pronounced, giving a more reticulate pattern to the lower leaf surface'' in the other two and lower leaf surface canescent in wrightii, lanate in lanosa.
     

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