Backyard Gardening

By Amy Strong

After watching a Netflix series featuring a moon garden, I became intrigued by creating one of my very own.  Oh, how lovely it would be to sit outside at night and take in its sweet aromas and beautiful brightness. On a pleasant Saturday afternoon, as I was leaving Barnes & Noble, I found what was advertised as a moonflower at a parking lot garden tent across the street. I was so excited! How cool would it be to have a garden where the white flowers shine in the moonlight and intoxicate the senses with their sweet scents? Upon reflection, I’m glad that I bought only one. Here’s the scoop.

A month or so after a very busy work schedule and a little bit of unwilling neglect of my garden, I walked out and found this huge monstrosity reaching higher than all the surrounding plants. It was at least 5 feet tall as it was over my head. The bloom was dangling by a thin strand. There were spiky egg-shaped pods, and the stems were a purplish color. Increasingly curious, I started researching what this could possibly be. Was this something I planted or another unwanted volunteer placed there by local wildlife? I returned later that evening and found several open blooms, white with beautiful purple striped centers. I now noted the jagged shape of the oversized leaves. They weren’t pretty little heart-shaped leaves associated with the moonflower I wanted. Humm?

After doing some research and discussing the possibilities with a fellow master gardener, we deduced that it was a dangerous member of the nightshade family, Datura (Datura stramonium). Several species of Datura have many names, including moonflower, devil’s trumpet, devil’s weed, and jimsonweed. This is not the beautiful vining moonflower I thought I had purchased! 

Let’s discuss the differences between the two types of moonflower.

The Moonflower (Ipomoea alba) is a vertical climbing vine. It has heart-shaped leaves and large white trumpet-shaped flowers that open at night. (See Image 1). They produce a lovely and sweet fragrance. Moonflower can grow to 15 feet in height and 3 to 6 feet in width. They enjoy full sun and well-draining clay, loam, or sandy soil. This type of moonflower is a member of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae). The Ipomoea alba is native to North America and attracts hummingbirds and beneficial insects such as nocturnal moths. It is a host plant for the Hummingbird moth (Macroglossum stellatarum) and Sphinx moth (Sphingidae family). There are low-severity poisonous toxins in the seeds of this plant. 

The moonflower that I purchased thinking that it was that beautiful plant that I just described, turned out to be Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium), which belongs to the Solanaceae family and is extremely toxic! Jimsonweed is a non-native herbaceous, summer annual. Jimsonweed leaves are 3-8 inches long with wavy lobed edges arranged alternately along the stem. When bruised, the leaves give off an unpleasant odor. The Datura flowers can bloom at any time of day and can be white or lavender. (See Image 2). They are trumpet-shaped (deeper than the moonflower blooms). The seeds are covered in spiky burrs, as you can see in the picture provided along with this article. (See Image 2). All parts of the Datura plant are toxic; however, the leaves and seeds contain the highest concentration of atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. It can be deadly to animals and humans if consumed in large amounts. Please note:  Most poisoning occurs when Jimsonweed seeds are mixed with grain in livestock rations. https://poisonousplants.cvmbs.colostate.edu/plant/7

Jimsonweed can be challenging to eradicate and is quite aggressive once established. One seed pod alone can produce up to 800 tiny black seeds! Yikes! Fortunately, it has a shallow root system and can be mechanically controlled. For this method to be effective, it’s best done before it is established. Mowing and flame weeding can also be used on small plants. Several pre- and post-emergent herbicides can be used on Jimsonweed as well. You can contact your local Penn State Extension Office for more information on herbicides. 

Since we caught this bad boy early, we chose not to use any herbicides, especially Roundup, a non-selective post-emergent that will essentially destroy everything in the application area.  We decided the best course of action here was to pull by hand (wearing gloves, just as a precaution) and bag it in a plastic bag for disposal. My fingers are crossed that we got it in time and that I won’t see it back again. If we do, we’ll be prepared!

Amy Strong became a certified Penn State Extension Master Gardener in March 2021. She can be reached at clintonmg@psu.edu or the Clinton County Master Gardener Hotline at (570) 858-0198.