South America Gallery

Flowers of Datura and Humming Birds, Brazil

Oil on canvas, no date. According to the gallery guide, Datura arborea, Linn., [Brugmansia arborea L.] is a native of tropical America, and is commonly cultivated in other countries, as it grows like a rank weed. It is better known in English greenhouses under the name Brugmansia arborea, Pers. [...] the leaves are smoked to cure asthma; and the Greeks use them to procure pleasant dreams. The Humming Bird is Trochilus anais

© RBG KEW