Plants annual herbs, glabrate to pubescent, with short, weak tap roots. Leaves 6-16 cm long, 3-6 cm wide, deeply pinnately lobed, lower surfaces mostly sparsely pubescent to glabrescent but veins persistently hirtellous, bases cuneate to cordate, margins deeply lobed, sinuses defining a narrowly elliptical unlobed portion with width about 20-35% its length, tips acute. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicellate; calyces 1.5-4 cm long, toothed, teeth 2-6 mm long; corollas funnelform, 3.8-7.7 cm long, white, light lavender, or purple, with 5 sets of 3 veins, center vein of each set terminating in an acuminate tooth (acumen) 1-3 mm long. Fruits erect, green, ovoid to ellpsoid, 3-4.5 cm long, dehiscing into 4 equal valves, bases surrounded by persistent, reflexed calyx bases, surface glabrate to puberulent with 100-300 spines, terminal spines 10-15 mm long, others 0.5-1.5 mm long; seeds reniform to discoid, 3-4.5 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, rugose, not triple-ridged.
Datura quercifolia grows in disturbed areas from the southwestern United States to Baja California, and central Mexico.