Plants unarmed, annual or perennial herbs, to 2 m tall, sometimes becoming somewhat woody at the base. Stems and leaves glabrous, glabrescent, or with persistent hairs, hairs sometimes glandular. Leaves alternate, petiolate, simple, ovate to elliptic, sometimes deeply lobed, margins often undulating, entire to irregularly and coarsely toothed, surfaces glabrous or pubescent, if pubescent, lower surfaces usually more densely so than upper surfaces. Inflorescences of solitary flowers. Flowers vertical, at least initially, sometimes nodding at maturity; calyces tubular, with equal or unequal teeth; corollas 6-25 cm long, sometimes double, usually white, varying to pink, violet, or purple, appearing funnelform but usually narrowing abruptly near the base, 5-lobed, lobes short, with 3, narrowly separated, parallel veins leading to the tip of each lobe; lobes terminating abruptly in an acuminate tip [≡ acumen], sometimes separated by shallow sinuses, sometimes sinuses with a lobule [≡ interacuminal lobe] at the base, these not associated with veins; stamens 5; ovaries 2-4-celled, with axile placentation and numerous ovules; stigmas 2-lobed. Fruits capsules, ovoid to globose, usually covered in stout or slender spines, sometimes tubercular or smooth, erect to reflexed at maturity, subtended by the basal portion of the calyx, dehiscence regular or irregular; seeds many, reniform, the lateral surfaces either with circular depressions or with a longitudinal furrow paralleling the dorsal edge, forming a ridge; caruncles sometimes present. 

Datura includes about 13 species. all native to the Americas, extending from the northern part of the continental US to Argentina and Chile. About five species have become established in warm, temperate to topical habitats around the world, some having being established in Asia long before Linnaeus wrote Species plantarum (1753). Indeed, Datura is based on a Sanskit word. This description excludes woody species with hanging flowers and berries for fruits, regarding them as members of Brugmansia.

In general, all species of Datura are toxic to humans but, presumably in small doses, some are used for their hallucinogenic properties.  There is also research being conducted on their chemical constituents, some of which may have beneficial uses. 

The appropriate taxonomic treatment of some species of Datura is currently under investigation and there are some nomenclatural issues to resolve. These are mentioned under the appropriate species description. 

Key to species of Datura in Egypt, Somaliland, and Somalia. the Erect Fruit Clade.