Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Bittersweet Nightshade


I'm slowly trying to reclaim my rock wall...and now I know why. There is a variety of different vegetation, some I knew were there (native strawberries, grapevines) but I found these a couple of days ago. I noticed they were going to bloom into something but I really wasn't sure what. I just got back from my nightly walk and there they were. Beautiful purple and yellow flowers. LOVE them! I took pictures and sat down to try and figure out what they were. To the best of my knowledge they are bittersweet nightshade. Pretty!

Both the foliage and the berries of the nightshade are somewhat poisonous, the berries causing nausea; however in diluted form the berries were used by Native Americans to treat nervousness and diarrhea. The dried stems were used as a sedative, diuretic and hypnotic. The chewed roots had an initial bitter taste which became sweet as they continued to be chewed. This characteristic led to the name, bittersweet nightshade.

I guess I'll know for sure if they start getting berries on them. They're still pretty whatever they are!




1 comment:

Lori said...

Beautiful! The flowers look a lot like Columbine but the leaves don't. Either way, it's nice that it's growing wild.