MY brother lives in Salisbury and he has sent me the article on Malcolm Hughes and the “alien” plant growing in his greenhouse in Shrewton. It was sent to me because I am a botanist and he asked me for an opinion.
My first comment is that the photograph published, while fine for a newspaper, is not good for botanical identification but then your reporter, Alex Rennie, would obviously not know this.
If Mr Rennie goes back in September and takes close-up photographs, particularly of flowers, then there should be no doubt about its identity.
However, for the moment, the most likely identification is that this is a Datura plant (or Thorn Apple) but we’ll see if Mr Hughes lets it grow and flower.
ANTHONY HAMILTON.
Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
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