Plants annuals or short-lived perennials, with short, slightly swollen tap roots. Leaf blades broadly ovate, both surfaces pubescent, entire or few-lobed. Calyces 4-8 cm long, the teeth equal; corollas 12-23 cm long, white with purple throats, lobes not separated by sinuses, with prominent interacuminal lobules. Capsules reflexed, ovaid, 6-7 cm long, 4-6 cm wide, regularly dehiscent, glandular-puberulent, with 200-300 slender spines 13-22 mm long; seeds black, with a wide dorsal ridge but without longitudinal furrows on the lateral surfaces; hila linear.
Datura discolor is native from the southwestern U.S through Mexico to Honduras. It can be identified by the purple throats of the otherwise-white flowers and its glandular-hairy, reflexed capsules.
The above description relies on information in Bye (2001) and Hammer et al. (1983) because only one specimen was available in the herbaria we consulted. Bye (pers. comm.) is in the process of formally lectotypifying the name.