This morning myself and Dan were clearing out a herbaceous border that hadn’t had attention in a while. Sometimes people think gardening is simple, but I’m not sure why, plants are damn complicated. And not being straightforward means that we often have to ask each other,
‘Is this a weed?’ Because there are thousands of different weeds and if they grow huge or are attractive, then it’s easy to assume a weed is a carefully chosen ornamental plant, of which there are also thousands.
So Dan asked me if a plant was a weed, and I guessed yes because it was too close to a shrub, but still, it was huge and attractive, with pretty purple flowers. I picked some to get a photo, trying to arrange them on the grass, while Dan started googling purple weed, but got nowhere. I had a feeling that these flowers reminded me of something else, maybe something like Solanum? (there’s an ornamental Solanum, but tomatoes are Solanum too). Meanwhile Dan was rubbing the leaves under his nose to see if they smelt of anything familiar.
‘Oh yeah, they do look a bit like Solanum,’ said Dan, squashing a leaf against his cheek thoughtfully. Then a worrying thought occurred to me,
‘Isn’t Deadly Nightshade a Solanum, Dan? Dan, maybe stop rubbing it on your face.’ I said, beginning to panic I googled. Yeah, Deadly nightshade is exactly what it was. One of the most poisonous plants we have in England. Cue frantic seeking out of water and searching symptoms and cures, and waiting for hallucination, seizures, death.
Pretty though. And we discovered that Deadly Nightshade is ok so long as you don’t eat any of it and wash it off immediately. And women used to drip juice of it into their eyes to make their pupils big. So it’s been educational.
Word of the day: phthartic – deadly; destructive
inkbiotic 
Wanna come fix my flower bed? I now have visions of being eaten alive by a LILY!!
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Lilies are the worst! They wait until your back is turned, then CHOMP! They’ve got you.
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I KNOW! And mine is over 6′ tall! I don’t stand a chance!!
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Ooh, it sounds beautiful though! Just keep a distance.
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lol
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Loved the tone in this post. 🙂
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Thank you very much! 🙂
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We went to the Isles of Scilly earlier this year, and husband ‘treated’ me to some bulbs from an honesty box – Belladonna they were – deadly nightshade I said! He doesn’t know … Actually, I planted them and nowt’s happened (in the garden or in the poison collection)
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Ooh, I’d love to go to the Isles of Scilly, I bet they’re beautiful. I’m glad you didn’t get poisoned anyway 🙂
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Quick googling.
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I can be speedy in a crisis (although in reality there was more fumbling and shouting at phone)
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My gardening knowledge is extremely sketchy, but I do know that in my garden EVERYTHING bites back!
Hey, and well done too – you’re a life saver.
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On this one occasion I outwitted a plant! So often it’s the other way around.
I’m imagining your garden as the Little Shop of Horrors now 😉
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Feed me Seymour!
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Lol!
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Pretty and deadly. I wonder who was the first person to use the plant for eye drops?
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How did they ever think squeezing deadly plant sap into their eyes was a good idea. HOW? Why is fashion so often harmful?
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I love, love, love everything on flowers, mushrooms, herbs and generally plants. What they do, how they do, which can induce sleep, calm you down, or also induce hallucinations and such. It is so much fun to learn that stuff and it is still, to this day, a lot of unknown to the modern science in this area.
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It’s always good to hear someone who finds plants as interesting as me 🙂
And yep, it’s amazing how little is known about plants. Frustrating too, because we can’t survive without them.
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