...it seems clear that D. metel is essentially a collection of cultivars and recent critical authors have found it impossible to recognise a wild type for the species.
This view is supported by the tuberculate capsules found in D. metel (as compared with the spinose capsules of other species) and the retention of seeds on the placenta, at least in cultivars 'Fastuosa' and 'Chlorantha'.
Both of these traits suggest cultivar selection...The variants of D. metel have been widely grown as ornamentals over a long period of time...There is no evidence that the variants arose from horticultural plant breeding in the Old World...These facts taken together strongly suggest that D. metel was a well-established cultivated species with a range of forms in its place of origin and that these forms arrived ready-made in Europe.

A cultivar of D. metel with a glossy, purple-black stem (Hindi: काला धतूरा kāla dhatūra - "black datura") has long existed as a garden plant under the obsolete name "Datura fastuosa" (coined originally by Linnaeus and featuring the Latin epithet fastuosa, meaning "haughty" or "proud").
Its flowers normally have a double or triple corolla, each corolla having a deep purple exterior and white or off-white interior.
The same double or triple corolla is also a feature of the yellow-flowered cultivar 'Chlorantha'.
The purple-flowered 'Fastuosa' has recently been reported to have become naturalised in Israel, where it may yet become as common a roadside weed as the related D innoxia.

D. metel 'Fastuosa' has in recent times become known under a variety of superfluous cultivar names such as 'Black', 'Blackcurrant Swirl', 'Cornucopaea', 'Double Blackcurrant Swirl', 'Double Purple', and 'Purple Hindu'.
It has also received many scientific names which should not be used for a cultivar:
Datura hummatu var.
fastuosa (L.) Bernh.

Datura fastuosa L.
Datura metel f. fastuosa (L.) Danert
Datura metel var.
fastuosa (L.) Saff.

Stramonium fastuosum (L.) Moench
Likewise the yellow-flowered D. metel 'Chlorantha' has recently acquired such superfluous cultivar names as 'Ballerina Yellow'.
...it seems clear that D. metel is essentially a collection of cultivars and recent critical authors have found it impossible to recognise a wild type for the species. This view is supported by the tuberculate capsules found in D. metel (as compared with the spinose capsules of other species) and the retention of seeds on the placenta, at least in cultivars 'Fastuosa' and 'Chlorantha'. Both of these traits suggest cultivar selection...The variants of D. metel have been widely grown as ornamentals over a long period of time...There is no evidence that the variants arose from horticultural plant breeding in the Old World...These facts taken together strongly suggest that D. metel was a well-established cultivated species with a range of forms in its place of origin and that these forms arrived ready-made in Europe.
A cultivar of D. metel with a glossy, purple-black stem (Hindi: काला धतूरा kāla dhatūra - "black datura") has long existed as a garden plant under the obsolete name "Datura fastuosa" (coined originally by Linnaeus and featuring the Latin epithet fastuosa, meaning "haughty" or "proud"). Its flowers normally have a double or triple corolla, each corolla having a deep purple exterior and white or off-white interior. The same double or triple corolla is also a feature of the yellow-flowered cultivar 'Chlorantha'. The purple-flowered 'Fastuosa' has recently been reported to have become naturalised in Israel, where it may yet become as common a roadside weed as the related D innoxia.
D. metel 'Fastuosa' has in recent times become known under a variety of superfluous cultivar names such as 'Black', 'Blackcurrant Swirl', 'Cornucopaea', 'Double Blackcurrant Swirl', 'Double Purple', and 'Purple Hindu'. It has also received many scientific names which should not be used for a cultivar:
Datura hummatu var. fastuosa (L.) Bernh.
Datura fastuosa L.
Datura metel f. fastuosa (L.) Danert
Datura metel var. fastuosa (L.) Saff.
Stramonium fastuosum (L.) Moench
Likewise the yellow-flowered D. metel 'Chlorantha' has recently acquired such superfluous cultivar names as 'Ballerina Yellow'.
Datura metel