Today’s Shot 198

Alternative Health by Pilgrimage Studio

Toad’s Shade

Black nightshade berries and flowers

🌿Cee’s Flower of the Day – FOTD🌿

Solanum americanum, or Black nightshade, has family members we know well, such as tomatoes and eggplants. It has been called Garden nightshade, American black nightshade, Common nightshade, Petty morel, Glossy nightshade, Apple of Sodom, Small-Flowered nightshade, Common purple nightshade, Hound’s berry, and The Black Toad. This plant has, many times, been synonymously referred to as Solanum nigrum. Like other humble-looking garden plants such as the dandelion, its leaves provide shade for garden toads.

Misconception

This plant has been confused with the black, berry-producing plant called belladonna (also used as medicine – such as in homeopathic remedies), which is very poisonous and often called, “deadly nightshade”. While there are very toxic nightshades, the ripe, Black nightshade berries and young greens have been used for food. Also referred to as, Wonderberries or Sunberries, they have been made into sauces and jams and the plant is also considered to have medicinal properties. *The green berries can be toxic.

“Do not mistake the deadly nightshade for this, if you know it not, you may then let them both alone.” – – Nicholas Culpepper

Noticing the Difference

Belladonna berries, and the bracts (calyx) at the base of the berries, are much larger on the Deadly nightshade than on the the Black nightshade plant. Photos showing the difference between the Black Nightshade and Belladonna. The flowers of the belladonna are also different than the Black Nightshade.

Of course, when in doubt… do not eat unknown berries or plants. The ripe, Black nightshade berries from my picture were sweet but we didn’t dare eat much from it until we read more about the plant.

Be well, be safe, and happy foraging friends!

© Pilgrimage Studio

18 Comments

      1. Dawn Renee

        Ppssthh…. If I find one name for an unknown plant I find in the yard, I’m like, “Oooh. Oooh … this is it! I can’t believe I found it!!”
        I’m so excited! I learn if it’s edible for Murph or humans. Then, I stop there – feeling I reached a pinnacle of enlightenment.
        So, I think it’s awesome you do that. It’s cool to think how, over the eons their names became such.

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      2. Pilgrimage Studio

        Lololol! I know the feeling. We get so excited to find them and then to learn more. When we put the photo into plant snap, all I saw was the word Nightshade. Our faces dropped…Horrors! What have we eaten!?!? Your accounting of finding even one name mirrors our own! 🤣 awesome! Murph will be safe with you around monitoring the plants! 🦎

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      3. Dawn Renee

        Plant snap … cool. I knew of an app, can’t recall the name, it wasn’t that one, it turned our to be limiting. I’ll check out plant snap. Thanks! Haha, I can picture that face drop. I’d think that would belong in the bad witches’ brew. Yeah, let’s hope we can count on those nice folds on the internet that tell me what is safe for our little guy. New things in small increments, til they seem good.

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      4. Pilgrimage Studio

        Good idea on the increments 😊 Nightshade definitely goes in the cauldron and the poisonous ones make especially good medicinal brews… if you know what you’re doing, that is. 💫 Good luck with the app. I find that combining the app with google gets me on the right track. 🔮 🧙‍♂️

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