Datura leichhardtii....native or not?

[Weirdo]

Hi, I've been bitten by the curiosity bug and would like to hear anybody's theories or opinions on how Datura leichhardtii came to be in Australia. It is present over a wide distribution except for ACT, Victoria and Tasmania.

On Federal weed websites it is described as being a native species but at the same time it is listed as a weed. On overseas sites it is described as being native to Mexico and Guatemala but no mention is made of it's Australian status.This species was first documented by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1843 when he collected a specimen near the Comet River in Central Queensland. It was named many years later by Ferdinand von Mueller in honour of Leichhardt.

If this species' original distribution is in Central America, surely it would have been collected, described and named by one of the myriad of botanists and other scientific explorers during the post-Columbian period of over 300 years up until it was first recorded in 1843 on the other side of the Pacific. Who is to say that it isn't native to Terra Australis and was introduced somehow to Central America?

From the scant information I have been able to glean, this plant was not used by the Aborigines for any purpose, whereas the use of Datura spp. is well documented in the Americas. Any ideas????

[teamwhy]

Origin:

The origin of Leichhardt's Thornapple is Mexico (Symon & Haegi 1999).

History:

Leichhardt's Thornapple was a very early introduction to Australia. It was found by Ludwig Leichhardt in 1843 at Comet River in central Queensland (Purdie et al. 1982). Its mode of introduction is unknown.

maybe you have seen this already...it comes from

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/biodiversity/invasive/weeds/weeddetails.pl?taxon_id=2996