It is native to the Southwestern United States, Central and South America, and introduced in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.

[3] When English botanist Philip Miller first described the species in 1768, he misspelled the Latin word innoxia (inoffensive) when naming it D. inoxia.

All parts of the plant emit a foul odor similar to rancid peanut butter when crushed or bruised, although most people find the fragrance of the flowers to be quite pleasant when they bloom at night.

The seeds and indeed the whole plant, have strongly deliriant properties and a high potential for overdose; the slow appearance of the effects leading to the erroneous belief that the dose taken has been ineffective.

D. innoxia differs from D. stramonium, D. metel and D. fastuosa in having about 7 to 10 secondary veins on either side of the midrib of the leaf which anastomose by arches at about 1 to 3 mm.

According to Tropicos, a widely accepted authority on botanical names, the inoxia form is due to an error originally made by 18th-century taxonomist Philip Miller, and since corrected.

[11] All parts of Datura plants are toxic, containing dangerous levels of tropane alkaloids (hyoscyamine, hyoscine)[12]and may be fatal if ingested by humans and other animals, including livestock and pets.

[12] The main observed effects of ingestion are enlarged pupils, dry mouth, trouble breathing, blurred vision, hallucinations, panic, death.

[citation needed] Although the Aztecs warned against madness and "various and vain imaginings", many Native Americans have used the plant as an entheogen for hallucinations and rites of passage.

In the 1990s and 2000s, the United States media contained stories of adolescents and young adults dying or becoming seriously ill from intentionally ingesting Datura.