As its name suggests, the angel’s trumpet has enormous flared flowers, which are pollinated by night-flying moths. To attract these moths, the plant produces an intense fragrance. Both scent production and flower opening are under circadian control: the flowers are closed and lack fragrance during the day, but open and emit scent in the evening.
For most animals, the plant is highly poisonous. Interestingly, some caterpillars that eat the plant are unaffected by the poison, instead storing it until they metamorphose into a butterfly. The stored poison is still active against other animals, and deters predators. The nectar contains scopolamine, an alkaloid which is somewhat poisonous to bees (and less poisonous to moths), which is another way in which the plant limits the range of pollinators which visit it.
The angel’s trumpet is native to Brazil, but is now extinct in the wild.
