August 2, 2011

I didn’t get down to the river this weekend, but I took a walk down my road this morning. The first three photos need no commentary, but the last photo might. You are probably familiar with this plant, but did you know that it is related to the tomato? Don’t eat it, though; it’s poisonous. The Latin name for it is Solanum dulcamara, and it has at least 17 common names: bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bitter nightshade, blue bindweed, Amara Dulcis, climbing nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, poisonberry, poisonflower, scarlet berry, snakeberry, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, and woody nightshade. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solanum_dulcamara.) I’ve known it as deadly nightshade, but when I Googled that name, I got a different plant with a different Latin name. Like so many other plants I like (darn!), it is invasive, at least in the Great Lakes area. It’s native to Asia and Europe. One of my earliest memories is of this plant, which I remember for its purple spiky flowers growing near the alley in back of my childhood home in a Chicago suburb. When I lived in Ann Arbor, I saw a very large caterpillar on this plant in my back yard. It looked amazingly like a tomato worm, but with side markings going in the opposite direction from the ones on tomato worms.

August 2, 2011 | Categories: Photography | Tags: Amara Dulcis, bitter nightshade, bittersweet nightshade, blue bindweed, climbing nightshade, deadly nightshade, fellenwort, felonwood, Great Lakes, poisonberry, poisonflower, poisonous, scarlet berry, snakeberry, Solanum dulcamara, tomato, tomato worm, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, violet bloom, woody nightshade | Leave a comment