What is this shrub?

[peanuts]

We came across this today, never seen it before around here (SW France, edge of Pyrenees).  Can anyone tell me what it might be? It was stunning and so eye-catching. The trumpet flowers must have been 6ins long at least.

[peanuts]

[ed dibbles]

It's a datura. Half hardy so can't tolerate frost but that one in france is lovely.

[ed dibbles]

Also known as Brugmansia. 

[PondDragon]

Yes, Brugmansia. Datura now includes only the smaller annual types (thorn-apples).

[Obelixx]

Usually grown as a house plant in the UK but beware - poisonous.   Look it up before you buy one.

[peanuts]

Thank you for identification!  Really interesting to read about it.  As you say, Obelix, it seems to be nastily poisonous.  Just read about this unfortunate man in Peru, but it doesn't say at the end what happened to him   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   !

Soon after drinking the Tonga, the man fell into a dull brooding, he stared vacantly at the ground, his mouth was closed firmly, almost convulsively and his nostrils were flared. Cold sweat covered his forehead. He was deathly pale. The jugular veins on his throat were swollen as large as a finger and he was wheezing as his chest rose and sank slowly. His arms hung down stiffly by his body. Then his eyes misted over and filled with huge tears and his lips twitched convulsively for a brief moment. His carotids were visibly beating, his respiration increased and his extremities twitched and shuddered of their own accord. This condition would have lasted about a quarter of an hour, then all these actions increased in intensity. His eyes were now dry but had become bright red and rolled about wildly in their sockets and all his facial muscles were horribly distorted. A thick white foam leaked out between his half open lips. The pulses on his forehead and throat were beating too fast to be counted. His breathing was short, extraordinarily fast and did not seem to lift the chest, which was visibly fibrillating. A mass of sticky sweat covered his whole body which continued to be shaken by the most dreadful convulsions. His limbs were hideously contorted. He alternated between murmuring quietly and incomprehensibly and uttering loud, heart-rending shrieks, howling dully and moaning and groaning.[[/i]

[Obelixx]

I had one for several years until it got a lurgy and it was wonderful.     I didn't replace it because I subsequently had a child.  They're perfectly safe as houseplants for adults who know not to do anything stupid - just like a lot of our ordinary garden plants like foxglove, aconitum, rhodos and azaleas, daffodils, yew.....  All safe as long as you don't ingest them.

[Digeroo]

Monkshood acronite should not only not be injested it can be problem for some people even if touched.