North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[athagan@atlantic.net]

All of the ripe fruit photos of Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna)
that I can find in a Google image search show black colored berries
which is consistent with what I recall from the reference books.

In doing the search though I believe I have been misidentifying the
nightshade that is very common at my place.  I think it's not Atropa
belladonna at all, but rather Black Nightshade which seems to have
more than one binomial name in the quicky search I just did.  I'm
going to have to search out a blossoming plant now to see if it
actually is.  It's a common weed here.

.....Alan.

Quoting Donna &/or Kieran <holycow@cookeville.com>:

> Jim and John,  Deadly nightshade has white berries.  I know this
> because a 
> kind of nightshade was growing in my front yard in England in the
> late 70's 
> and it was rather pretty so I did a little checking and found it
> wasn't the 
> deadly stuff so I left it.  Walked out in the front yard one day to
> find my 
> two year old with a berry headed for his mouth and squished berries
> all down 
> the front of his shirt.  That was when I called the emergency room
> for a 
> quick check of the difference, and all they would say was to bring
> a sample 
> with me.  I said I'm not going 20 miles with 2 kids just to make
> sure I'm 
> correct, just look at your danged pictures and tell me if the
> deadly one has 
> red or white berries.  They wouldn't, so in the end I called a
> neighbor's 
> retired professor and he verified my ID over the phone.  What I had
> I think 
> was called bittersweet nighshade.
>     There are a lot of plants in the family, but I think that most
> of us are 
> going to find Black Nightshde in our gardens and these are said to
> be safe 
> to eat when ripe and cooked.  Actually, when you come right down to
> it, the 
> same is true for pokeberries, but I don't recommend them.  I met a
> city 
> woman trying to do the homestead thing who'd picked a bunch of what
> she 
> thought were blackberries.  She made a pie, cooked it, and had
> eaten about 
> half when her husband got home from work and wanted her to show him
> the 
> "blackberry bush" in the backyard.  HE knew pokeberries when he saw
> them, 
> but when they called the emergency room, they just laughed and said
> don't 
> worry about it.     Donna 
> 
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