HERB - What's Up With all the Nightshade?

[Katherine Blackthorne]

Here's my experience with nightshade:

A loooong time ago when I was in Junior High, we climbed Buck Mountain as a
class field trip.  (Located in upstate NY on the East side of Lake George,
it was a quick little 1hr. hike.)  One of the chaperones was a Girl Scout
Troop leader for the troop a couple years older than mine.

Everyone knew that rattlesnakes and blueberries grew on Buck Mountain. The
Girl Scout Leader identified those bushes with the big, fat, dark blue
berries on them as blueberries.  I wasn't so sure, but she insisted she was
right, so we ate them.  They didn't taste great -- kind of dry and lacking
in flavor -- but I kept on trying, hoping I'd come to some that weren't all
dried out.  I prob'ly ate enough to fill a berry-basket from the
supermarket before I discovered the REAL blueberries.  What I had eaten was
belladonna  ("deadly nightshade").

I was feeling rather spacy, which I attributed to the elevation at the
time.  (In NY, 3,000 feet was considered enough elevation to make you
lightheaded.  Here in CA they don't think it counts if it's less than 6!)
I even lost the trail on the way down and was unable to find it on my own,
even though it was plainly trodden before me.  (Me, who grew up in the
woods.)  Looking back and remembering what I experienced, I can say that I
was experienceing a hallucinogenic drug, though I did not have
hallucinations.  These were the only ill effects I experienced.



I am NOT saying Night shade is safe.  If you read on it, several sources
mention that it *is*  "a great hallucinogen -- just before you die."   I am
saying that brushing it with your bare arms will prob'ly not seriously harm
you.  Wash with soap & water.  It doesn't have persistant oils like poison
oak/ivy/sumac.  (The toddler & the berry is another story.  Call poison
controll immediately if you susspect ingestion.)

Tomatoes are in the nightshade family, and all part except the fruits are
poison if ingested.  (I always heard it "all green parts", which I took to
mean green tomatoes as well.  Then the movie "Fried Green Tomatoes" came
out & I figured out I'd misunderstood.)  Ditto with the potato:  nightshade
family, all green parts are poisonous.

I am not familiar with woody nightshade -- is that the one with little
white/pink flowers and fruits that look like currant-sized tomatoes?  (One
grew in our front yard, and we called it the "poisonberry" bush.  I don't
*know* that it's a form of nightshade, but based on comparisons to other
memebers of the family, I susspect it was.)

Note:  I AM NOT AN EXPERT ON THIS.  If someone contradicts me, go with the
more cautious person!!

--Katherine Blackthorne



>Help!
>
>Twice in one week now, I have identified, mentioned to the owner, had the
>owner react with surprise, had the owner panic, gone out to the car to
>get my gloves, removed, and threw out (after much stress) nightshade
>plants from their yards.  Is it the drought that's bringing them out?
>It's driving me crazy!!!
>
>Any thoughts on how to scrub down after my bare arms brushed the plant?
>Which parts are the most dangerous?  (We had a scare when one toddler
>licked a berry - that's what caused me to find the second plant.)  Any
>ideas on how to deal with nightshade poisoning, besides calling Poison
>Control?  Any other thoughts on the plant itself???
>
>Oh - we're talking Woody Nightshade, not the other variety that slips my
>mind.
>
>Boy, does that plant STINK when it's bruised!!!!!
>-Caro (please, am I done now with all the Nightshade???  I already have a
>last name, I don't want to be known as Shade-bane!!!)
>
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