My theme this year is wild flowers. Most of us will be aware of the flowers that grow in our gardens but what surprises me is how few wild flowers that I know.
I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.
'N' - Nightshades
What do the old American Upidee song, Longfellow's Excelsior poem and a parody by A E Houseman have in common?
The answer to what my flowers are today is 'hidden' in their common first line: -
"The shades of night were falling fast."
Although one is known as 'Bittersweet' it's also called -
Both nightshades can grow to to four feet in hedges and locally to us occur intertwined in blackberry brambles.
Attributions:
I pass them every day but rarely look at them. Well this year will be different - even if many of them may fall under the letter 'X' for unknown.
'N' - Nightshades
What do the old American Upidee song, Longfellow's Excelsior poem and a parody by A E Houseman have in common?
The answer to what my flowers are today is 'hidden' in their common first line: -
"The shades of night were falling fast."
Although one is known as 'Bittersweet' it's also called -
 |
| Woody Nightshade (solanum dulcamara) |
 |
| Woody Nightshade (flower and red berries) |
As you can see each flower has five blue/purple petals with a central yellow cone. The berries go from green to yellow and then to red. These are poisonous but only enough to cause vomiting.
In Lincolnshire, garlands of bittersweet (woody nightshade) were once hung on pigs to protect them from witchcraft. In Germany, it was hung round the necks of cattle to ward off evil.
Bittersweet is often miscalled Deadly Nightshade but that is a a plant whose berries are, as its name implies, deadly poisonous - three berries have killed a child.
 |
| Deadly Nightshade (atropa belladonna) |
I've always known this plant as Belladonna, It berries are black and known as Devil's Berries or Death Cherries.
 |
| Deadly Nightshade - Chelsea Physic Garden |
Despite its deadly nature, atropine from the deadly nightshade has its uses in-
- Ophthalmology - where it is used to dilute the pupil for access to the back of the eye.
- Cardiology - to speed up heart rate.
Attributions:
- Woody Nightshade (single flower) - Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage, 20 May 2011 ex Flickr by Anemone Projector - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic
- Deadly Nightshade - Ranmore Common, Surrey, 18 July 2010, ex Flickr by Donald Macauly - CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.
- Deadly Nightshade - 3 August 2009, ex geograph.org.uk, by David Hawgood - CC BY-SA 2.9 generic
