When does Sacred Datura bloom in California?

Most often in July. Across 2,227 dated, research-grade observations of Datura wrightii in California, the flowering season runs roughly March to October.

Peak July In flower 2,227 Examined 2,912 State California

Flowering 2,227 in flower of 2,912 examined

49%

56%

78%

79%

82%

83%

87%

84%

79%

78%

66%

54%

Proportion of examined Datura wrightii in California in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	40	82	49%	38% to 59%
Feb	58	104	56%	46% to 65%
Mar	227	291	78%	73% to 82%
Apr	296	377	79%	74% to 82%
May	285	346	82%	78% to 86%
Jun	244	294	83%	78% to 87%
Jul	183	211	87%	81% to 91%
Aug	152	182	84%	77% to 88%
Sep	241	305	79%	74% to 83%
Oct	262	335	78%	73% to 82%
Nov	166	250	66%	60% to 72%
Dec	73	135	54%	46% to 62%

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Datura wrightii in California observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 2,227 of 2,912 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in California found Datura wrightii in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in California, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Datura wrightii

Sacred Datura

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in California. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.