Sunday, 8:00 AM. 66 degrees, wind WSW, brisk. The sky is partly cloudy, the channel is crawling, and the barometer predicts sunny skies.
The nightshade, or European bittersweet, Solanum dulcamera in the Solonaceae family, is a common garden and roadside weed. Its flowers are small but rather pretty. All the nightshades are poisonous to one degree or another, and although this common species isn’t deadly, it’s fruit(green, blue, orange and finally red when ripe, like a little tomato) is attractive to children and should be eliminated where possible. The plant has a narcotic effect and was considered medicinal in ancient times, and purported to ward off the “evil eye,” but is no longer used in herbal medicine. The Solanum family includes many useful and edible species, including the potato, the tomato, peppers and other plants. It is easy to see why tomatoes were eschewed as poisonous when first introduced to Europe from America.
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