Brugmansia - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

Linnaeus first classified these plants as part of Datura with his 1753 description of Datura arborea. Then in 1805, C. H. Persoon transferred them into a separate genus, Brugmansia, named for Dutch naturalist Sebald Justinus Brugmans. For another 168 years, various authors placed them back and forth between the genera of Brugmansia and Datura, until in 1973, with his detailed comparison of morphological differences, T.E. Lockwood settled them as separate genera, where they have stayed unchallenged since.

Currently, there are 7 recognized species:

• Brugmansia arborea (Andes - Ecuador to northern Chile)
• Brugmansia aurea (Andes - Venezuela to Colombia)
• Brugmansia insignis (Eastern Andes foothills - Colombia to Bolivia)
• Brugmansia sanguinea (Andes - Colombia to northern Chile)
• Brugmansia suaveolens (Southeast Brazil)
• Brugmansia versicolor (Ecuador)
• Brugmansia vulcanicola (Andes - Colombia to Ecuador)

These species are then divided into two natural, genetically isolated groups. Brugmansia section Brugmansia (the warm-growing group) includes the species aurea, insignis, sauveolens, and versicolor. Brugmansia section Sphaerocarpium (the cold group) includes the species arborea, sanguinea, and vulcanicola.

Two of these species were challenged by Lockwood in his 1973 doctoral thesis. First, Brugmansia vulcanicola was said to be a subspecies of B. sanguinea, but this was refuted by Lockwood's former mentor, R.E. Schultes in 1977. Second, Lockwood proposed that the species B. insignis was instead a hybrid of the combination (B. suaveolens x B. versicolor) x B. suaveolens. This was later disproved by crossbreeding experiments done by the Preissels, published in 1997.