Looks can be deceiving. And when it comes to wildflowers, some of the prettiest blooms occur on plants that can make you sick or even kill you. Bittersweet nightshade is a prime example .
Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) produces small five-petaled flowers, violet or purple and shaped like a shooting star, with a brilliant yellow protruding center column composed of fused anthers. Unquestionably quite beautiful. But a beauty that often strikes fear into the heart and mind of the beholder, who—when it's pointed out to them and mentioned by name—stares in appalled disbelief as one might fixate on a close-range cobra.
Don’t get me wrong—the plant does indeed contain a number of active compounds. However, its deadly reputation is overblown, in part because it’s often confused with the related deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), that perennial favorite of old Gothic novels and whodunit fiction. I certainly wouldn't advise you to ingest any part of the of the plant…and kids, especially, need to be warned of its possible dangers. Still, most reputable modern botanical sources classify its toxicity as merely “moderate."
Bittersweet nightshade has been blooming along the river for a couple of weeks. The plant is a climbing or trailing vine with alternate, oval-shaped leaves with a pointed tip, and two smaller leaves or lobes that jut out from the base. Later on there will be bright red, pea-size berries. The plant’s vining nature is accounts for its alternate name, climbing nightshade.
The name comes from a substance called dulcamarine which, when chewed, gives first a bitter then sweet taste. The “dulcamara” part of it’s name is a combination of Latin words meaning bitter and sweet. “Solanum” comes from the same Latin root as “solace,” and likely derives from the plant’s long and varied comforting use in herbal medicine. Bittersweet nightshade was once used to treat everything from asthma and bronchitis, rheumatism, skin diseases, jaundice and kidney problems, to syphilis. And if your aliments had a darker source, bittesweet nightshade could also be employed to treat and counteract witchcraft.
Thoreau thought the bittersweet nightshade’s ripening berries exceedingly lovely. “I do not know any clusters more graceful and beautiful than these,” he wrote. They hang more gracefully over the river’s brim than any pendant in a lady’s ear. Yet, they’re considered poisonous; not to look at surely…But why should they not be poisonous? Would it not be bad taste to eat these berries which are ready to feed another sense?”
Bad tasting? In bad taste? Or just bad? I’ll leave that decision up to you. Pretty poison? Or just pretty? I’ll stick with the latter. Though I will point out that nightshade and potatoes are related…
