In addition to jimson weed, these include apple-of-Peru, ground cherry, several nightshades, and horse nettle. The yellow, tomato-like berry enclosed in the inflated, lantern-like seedpod of the ground cherry is toxic when green but sometimes harvested and made into jams or pies when ripe. Caution should be exercised. I no longer pop ripe ground cherries into my mouth during fall outings as I once did. I regard the stout three- to six-foot tall plant — which displays large irregularly-lobed, purple-tinged leaves and funnel-shaped flowers — from a distance, according it the same respect reserved for copperheads, rattlesnakes, and amanita mushrooms.
The white or pale violet flowers are about four inches long, having an open end that flares into pointed lobes and a closed end at the stem covered by a green angular sleeve.
Jimson weed grew near her home in New Mexico. In one of these studies, she placed the four flowers in a design that repeated the tight rhythm of the pinwheel-shaped blossoms, and she highlighted the beauty of the flowers by depicting them using a light, simplified palette of colors. Since the fruit of jimson weed is a spiny ball about two inches in diameter, the plant is also called thorn apple. In late fall this pod splits open, revealing four compartments in which there are numerous black seeds.
As might be expected, these seeds are the most potent part of the plant. Cattle and sheep have died after grazing on jimson weed leaves and fruit. And the deaths of humans who have devoured the seeds, especially children and old people, are recorded throughout the literature about the plant. The dried leaves — marketed as stramonium — have long been used as cigarettes or other inhalant forms in the treatment of asthma as an antispasmodic.
This use apparently encouraged people to experiment with the seeds, which contain potentially lethal doses of several alkaloids. Authorities differ on the origins of the plant, but it was apparently introduced into America at a very early date. The settlers of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in the New World, brought the plant with them and it thrived along the Virginia coastline. Nathaniel Bacon raised an unauthorized army against which the governor sent his troops.
Readers can contact him at P. About two to four feet tall, jimsonweed is hard to miss with its distinctive purple stem and large features. It has broad, coarsely toothed leaves resembling those of oaks and produces showy, funnel-shaped blossoms in shades of purple or white.
Jimsonweed is also known by many other names. The lovely flowers give way to walnut-sized seed pods sometimes called thorn apple covered in sharp spines. Once the seedpods dry, they open up into four chambers, each with many small, black seeds.
This herbaceous annual belongs to the Solanaceae , or nightshade, family. It should come as little surprise, then, that all parts of jimsonweed are poisonous to humans and animals.
There are many dangerous plants that can show up in your garden. A nonnative, it was introduced to Jamestown from England and was used to make healing salves for burns. When used to treat soldiers after the Bacon Rebellion in , however, jimsonweed caused some unexpected side effects including delusions and other abnormal behavior. Animals usually avoid jimsonweed unless forage is limited, though children captivated by the flowers might try eating them. This article reviews the cases of nine teenagers who were treated in hospitals in the Kanawha Valley after ingesting jimson weed.
We hope this article will help alert primary care physicians about the abuse of jimson weed and inform health officials about the need to educate teens about the dangers of this plant.
Abstract Jimson weed Datura stramonium, a member of the Belladonna alkyloid family is a plant growing naturally in West Virginia and has been used as a home remedy since colonial times. Publication types Case Reports Review.
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