Bittersweet Nightshade

Henry and I were walking our dog before supper tonight picking blackberries, when we found this guy growing amongst them:

I freaked a little at first because I thought it was a plant called deadly nightshade, turns out it's a somewhat less toxic relative.  Anyway, it was a good reminder to keep an eye on the little guy any time we're picking berries or just hiking in general, and to teach him to keep his paws off any wild plants unless Dada says they're okay.

It's funny the way nowadays we often think that it's important to kindle a connection to nature, but one man's nature is another man's wilderness.  Or more to the point, "nature" can turn into "wilderness" on you in a hurry.  In an urban greenspace we won't run into a bear or a wolverine, but a rabid raccoon?  Maybe.  Maybe we'll stumble onto a poison berry or a patch of stinging nettle.  Maybe a bird bomb will drop on us.  If given the choice, the pioneers who first lit out into the territories might have played it smart and just stayed home to watch the tube.  

We do have the choice, though, to go out if we want, and trade a small portion of our wealth of comfort for a piece of what most of the folks from less domesticated times and places had and have in surplus: sunburn, scratches, the occasional tummy-ache, and most importantly an up-close familiarity with the wild world that  sustains us all, contains our cities and farms and our visions of the future, birthed us and gave us our sense of ourselves, and can makes us stronger, and hardier, and wise.

Bittersweet Nightshade

Solanum dulcamara

Family solanaceae (nightshade)

Bittersweet nightshade is a vining perennial native to Europe and Asia, probably first brought to the Americas as a landscape plant due to its pretty purple flowers and berries the change from green to yellow then orange and red as they ripen.  Drugs.com lists it as a medicinal plant going back to Rome in 180 AD used to treat skin irritation, while in the US it was being used as a diuretic a hundred years ago.  Now its an "unsafe poisonous herb" according to the FDA.

The ripe berries are likely to cause vomiting, maybe worse in children, and every part of the plant is poison, but the unripe berries and the root are the really bad news.  Fatalities are rare but they're there.

Apparently, its common for them to grow around Himalayan blackberries, too, so be careful out there, ya'll.

--Tim 8/15/11