Monday, July 28, 2008

Nightshade


This nice looking plant is a type of nightshade called solanum dulcamara. Solanum dulcamara (bittersweet, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom or, woody nightshade) is poisonous to humans and livestock, but not birds. Birds eat them and then spread the seeds around all over the place. The berries and the leaves are both poisonous. You've most likely seen these plenty of times before, maybe in your backyard. Tomatoes and potatos are related to these, and they were both at one time thought to be poisonous, but happily we found out differently. These berries even look like little tomatoes. These are some of the plants you might find on an adventure at a nature trail, so be careful. Have fun, but don't touch the plants.

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