Datura wrightii

Open at dusk, closed by mid-morning, and enormous — the flower is a white trumpet the size of your hand, pleated into five points at the rim. It is not subtle, and it is not trying to be seen by you.

Datura is built for hawkmoths. The white-lined sphinx works it at dusk and again before dawn, hovering with the body held level and unrolling a proboscis long enough to reach the base of the throat. In flight it looks more like a small hummingbird than an insect, which is exactly how most people first misidentify it.

The relationship goes both ways. Sphinx moth caterpillars feed on datura foliage, so the plant that feeds the adult also feeds the larvae. The plant pays twice and still comes out ahead.

Every part of it is toxic — tropane alkaloids, in doses that are unpredictable plant to plant and season to season. It has a long history of ceremonial use in the Southwest and a long history of poisonings from people who read about the ceremonial use. Grow it, draw it, leave it alone otherwise.

It shows up on roadsides and disturbed ground, sprawling wide rather than tall, and it will reappear in the same spot for years off a deep perennial root.