A rather unusual plant appeared in one of our vegetable beds the other day. At first....
....the fruiting body reminded us of a teasel, several of which we'd planted in the garden a couple of years ago, but....
We made quite a fuss of it, staking it up and weeding around it, until a search on the internet revealed its true identity. It's a thorn apple or jimsonweed, a poisonous plant of the nightshade family which is an aggressive and invasive weed. It is native to middle America but has spread across the world, in part through contamination of bird food - which is probably how it turned up in our garden.
Worse, the traditional use of its seeds as an hallucinogen and as a drug to treat a range of mental illnesses has led it to being experimented with as a drug of abuse but it is so disorientating and unpleasant, as well as being fatal, that few dare use it.
The advice is to destroy any occurrences, using gloved hands, and not to dispose of it in the compost heap. This we have now done, if rather sadly, as it was rather beautiful.
[Fourth picture courtesy Wikipedia]
We have them growing occasionally. The seeds last for ages in the soil and a new plant will pop up somewhere most years. They are beautiful plants with short-lived blooms that uncurl into attractive trumpets; ours have the most wonderful pale blue centres. I know them as Datura and look forward to the next mature specimen every year. Slugs and snails love them too!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! So if they appear we're ok to keep them until they threaten to produce seeds.
DeleteThe previous occupant maybe didn't cut off the seed heads; hence your surprise guest. You could collect the seed and grow on in pots, they make attractive patio plants and easier to ward off the slugs.
ReplyDelete