Discussion

Angel's Trumpet

The inspiration for this week's painting subject came from my own backyard. I have an angel's trumpet plant. This photo shows an opening bud.

Here is the exact same plant with the blossom fully open roughly two days later. 

Brugmansia is the Latin genus name for angel's trumpets. It is a member of the nightshade family, and as such, it is highly toxic. A peer-reviewed medical journal reported a case in 2022 in which a woman developed blurred vision in her right eye for several hours after pruning an angel's trumpet plant, touching its leaves and blossoms, and subsequently rubbing that eye. Any part of angel's trumpet plants can be lethal if ingested; especially the seeds.

There are 7 angel's trumpet species in the genus, all of which are extinct in the wild. Native to South America, it is believed that some animal that used to disperse angel's trumpet seeds has been hunted into extinction. Animals disperse seeds by eating them and then spreading them around through excretions. Because of angel's trumpet's toxic nature, only animals with specialized digestive systems would be able to survive ingestion.

All of the world's remaining angel's trumpet plants, today spread around the world, are under human cultivation or escaped into backyards like mine or other places.

I don't know what species my plant is, but I think it may be a hybrid named Brugmansia × candida. It was created by cross breeding two of the seven original species. They are shown below.

Here is what the Brugmansia × candida hybrid looks like. It looks pretty similar to my plant.

Brugmansia are shrubs or trees.

They begin to blossom in the summer and continue into the fall until the first frost. These are buds.

Most angel's trumpet species have a scent that attracts butterflies and moths for pollination. One butterfly in particular, depends heavily on Brugmansia suaveolens for survival. 

ts larva absorbs angel's trumpet toxins without harm to itself.

One angel's trumpet species, Brugmansia sanguinea (red angel's trumpet) has no scent and can't attracts moths.

According to the Wikipedia article, it relies exclusively on the sword-billed hummingbird for pollination. That bird is the only one in the world whose beak is longer than its body, excluding the tail.

I presume that since the red angel's trumpet is extinct in the wild and sword-billed hummingbirds are native to the South American Andes, other means of pollination is used in cultivation.

The amount of time it takes for angel's trumpet fruit to mature is highly variable depending on the species and climate conditions. It can take a few months to a year. This is a ripe angel's trumpet fruit or seed pod.

These are the seeds.

Angel's trumpets may no longer exist in their original habitat, but they continue to survive in gardens around the world. Just be careful to avoid eating any part of them, and wash your hands after handling any part of them.

Artwork

I can find no Japanese artwork depicting anything resembling angel's trumpet. However, there is one famous Western Artist who painted jimson weed blossoms, also known as devil's trumpets, that belong to the same botanical family as angel's trumpets.

Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986)

O'Keeffe studied art in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but her work was largely independent of major art movements. Her best-known works were modernist landscapes and flowers. The jimson weed blossom painting below was produced in 1931. Jimson weed is in a different genera than angel's trumpet, but it is very closely related and has a similar appearance.

She did another one of a cluster of jimson weed blossoms in 1936.