Do Deer Eat Datura?

Many plants labeled deer-resistant get munched just the same when Bambi gets hungry; only a very few are truly safe from browsing deer. Datura (Datura spp. or Brugmansia spp.) is one of them. A deer that eats your datura -- enfant terrible of the nightshade family -- never again causes you problems. Every part of the plant is poisonous to humans and animals. Deer sense the toxicity and this puts datura at the top of the list of plants that actually survive hungry deer.

Datura captures the imagination with its poisonous qualities and intriguing common names like angel's trumpet, sacred thorn-apple, mad apple, toloache, moon flower and jimsonweed. It's a tough native plant that has found its way into gardens in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11. The perennial plant grows into a bush 4 feet high and 6 feet wide that produces white, night-blooming, trumpet-like flowers; cultivars offer different flower colors. The flowers smell pleasant but the horrid odor of the gray-green, hairy foliage limits the plant's garden use.

Deer stay away from datura. Experts at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center rate it as one of only a few truly deer-proof plants available. This means that deer simply do not eat the plant, not that they put it last on the dinner list. Part of their disinterest in datura stems from the rubbery stems and rank-smelling foliage; part may be attributed to an innate sense of the toxicity of the shrub.

Datura is known for its narcotic and poisonous qualities. Stems, roots, leaves and flowers are highly toxic to the point of being lethal if taken in sufficient amounts. The fruits and seeds are the most poisonous. Although the plant was used by Aztecs long ago for healing purposes, modern experts agree that ingesting the plant in any form is a bad idea. Those who eat it first suffer excitation and restlessness followed by depression, delirium and coma. Death can occur in as little as four hours after ingestion.

Once deer have plowed through every other plant in your garden, you may decide that deer-proof datura is worth the dangers, especially if you do not have small children in the house. The original native plant is Datura wrightii, thriving in USDA zones 9 though 11. Its flowers are simple and white and somewhat unsightly as morning turns into afternoon. You might plant Datura inoxia in USDA hardiness zones 9 though 10 for a low-maintenance plant growing to 3 feet high with pink or lavender flowers. Or try Datura metel, which thrives in the same zones, for showy flowers in purple, white or yellow. Plant all datura in full sun with plenty of space between, since the shrubs tend to sprawl.