Victoria County Master         Gardener Association

UNUSUAL HISTORY

Some plants are harmful if ingested

September 11, 2020

by Marcia Kauffman/Victoria County Master Gardener

Edited by Charla Borchers Leon/Victoria County Master Gardener

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY TERESA PRENDUSI

(https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/henbane.shtml)

Black Henbane, more commonly called Henbane, has a long history of effects on people in hallucinating, seizures, irregular heartbeat and even death when ingested -- or fainting in the presence of its scent.  These tubular greenish-yellow flowers with deep purple veins like shown here have leaves up to 8 inches long.  It can be found in mainly western states in Zone 8.

PHOTO COURTESTY OF WIKIMEDIA. ORG

Food laced with the leaves of Jimson Weed was said to have caused craziness to those who ate it in colonial America and others had debilitating effects from its seeds in seasoning foods in more recent days.  The long green leaves and tubular lavender blooms of the Solanaceae Datura stramonium shown here hardly look dangerous at its height of three feet.  It is found mostly in southwest North America in Zones 8a and in this area in 9b.

PHOTO COURTEST OF 123rf. com

Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is grown for its attractive silver-gray foliage that adds interesting texture and contrast to gardens.  It typically forms a clump of generally erect, non-woody, hairy, gray-green stems to 2-3 feet tall.  It is grown as an ornamental plant and is used today as an ingredient in the spirit Absinthe as well as some other alcoholic beverages and for some medicinal purposes.  It was believed to provide mental acuteness in Bohemian Paris years ago and then determined to actually cause hallucinations and madness if overly consumed.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON EXTENSION - WIMASTERGARDENER.ORG

Castor Bean is an evergreen herbaceous or semi-woody large shrub or small tree.  It is easily grown as a warm season annual in temperate climates with green, rust or brown-toned foliage, but it rarely exceeds 6-10 feet in a single growing season.  It features reddish-brown, some spotted, seed capsules and large, glossy leaves as shown here with plants of other colors.  Of note, the seeds are extremely poisonous, with the toxin ricin which is one of the deadliest natural poisons to humans - more so than cyanide and rattlesnake venom.  As few as four seeds can kill an average-sized adult, so keep plants out of reach of children.

NUMBERS TO CALL IN CASE OF ACCIDENTAL POISONING

• American Association of Poison Control Centers Hotline -1-800-222-1222

• South Texas Poison Center - 210-450-5100

SOME TOXIC/POISONOUS BERRIES TO AVOID

• Coyotillo

• Holly

• Jerusalem Cherry - Solanum pseudocapsicum

• Mistletoe

• Pokeweed

• Yew

Good practice:

If ever unsure whether a wild berry is safe, it’s best to avoid it.

Do you remember having sleepovers with friends and telling ghost stories? Then you would be so frightened you couldn’t sleep? When my favorite teacher, Mr. Philip Anthony Bianco, would read Edgar Allan Poe stories to us seventh-graders, such an atmosphere was created. I still use the lessons from him in research and writing to relay stories today.

Even stories of plants can create this sense of fiendish drama. Here are some plants I researched with unusual history.

Jimson weed

Jimson weed with lavender or white flowers and medium green leaves was very prolific in colonial Jamestown.

During its early history, many people had terrible experiences after ingesting this weed.


Seventy years later, when the British wanted to subdue an uprising by the colonists, the colonists remembered the nasty effect it had on people. So they slipped some jimson weed leaves into the British soldiers’ food.

When they ate the food laced with jimson weed, it caused temporary hallucinations and other craziness for 11 days. The British were then no match for the colonists.

More recently, a Canadian lady, while making dinner, mistakenly added these seeds to her cooking. She had been drying out seeds from this plant for next year’s garden. These seeds in her kitchen were accidentally grabbed and used when seasoning hamburgers. It sickened her and her husband to the point of hospitalization. They both recovered.

Jimson weed, Solanaceae datura, reaches a height of 3 feet. It is found mostly in southwest North America in Zones 8A and 9B.

Henbane

Hyoscyyamus niger, commonly called henbane, grows to a height of 3 feet. Henbane has a long history of creating hallucinations, seizures, irregular heartbeat — and even death.

Ancient Greece priestesses were said to become soothsayers after breathing the smoke of burning henbane. During the Middle Ages, henbane was known as “witches herb.” It was an ingredient in a salve that when applied to the skin created a flying sensation.


Attendees at the English Alnwick Poison Garden were said to have fainted just being in the presence of this plant on hot days.

These tubular greenish-yellow flowers with deep purple veins have leaves up to 8 inches long. This plant can be found in mainly western states in USDA Zone 8.

Wormwood

Wormwood, Artemisia absinthium, is an ingredient of a drink called absinthe. It was first thought if you drank absinthe it boosted your mental capability. It was later found to have the opposite effect creating hallucinations when ingested.

Life among Bohemian Paris included celebrated artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde and Henri Toulouse Lautrec who all were all absinthe drinkers. This alcoholic drink made from wormwood was believed to cause hallucinations and madness.

It had the nickname of “the Green Fairy” amongst the people who frequented the cafes of Bohemian Paris. It was later banned in Europe and America.

In early French history, a superstition was to place a wreath of wormwood on a baby’s head to protect it from witchcraft.

An herbaceous perennial, it has tiny yellow flowers which bloom from early spring through autumn in Zones 4 to 8.

Castor Bean

Here’s a scandalous story from more modern times. In 1978, Georg Markov was waiting for the London bus. When standing next to a man retrieving his dropped umbrella he felt a jab to his thigh. He didn’t think too much about it until he developed a fever and began vomiting blood. He died in the hospital.


During his autopsy, a small wound was discovered to his thigh in which a pellet was lodged.

The pellet contained ricin, a poisonous extract of the castor bean. This substance caused his organs to hemorrhage. The KGB were suspected of this “umbrella murder” but never charged. Mr. Markov, a communist defector, wrote articles criticizing communism while a BBC journalist.

This plant is a shrub with spiky seed pods containing speckled seeds. Growing to a height of 10 feet, it can be found in the Texas rangelands such as the Piney Woods and the Edwards Plateau.

Coyotillo (berries)

The Coyotillo plant is a Texas shrub with bright, green-toothed leaves and small greenish flowers. It grows in the dry creek beds of southern Texas.

Its berries can be tempting to eat, but the berries of Coyotillo or Karwinskia Humboldtian are known to cause paralysis after ingesting. However, the paralysis doesn’t occur for several days, so the person doesn’t even make the connection to the berries.

Animals and people ingesting these berries have paralysis starting in the feet and working its way up to their throats.

Thank you, Mr. Bianco, for the memories that instill researching, writing and storytelling in me. May he rest in peace.


The Gardeners’ Dirt is written by members of the Victoria County Master Gardener Association, an educational outreach of Texas A&M AgriLife Extension – Victoria County. Mail your questions in care of the Advocate, P.O. Box 1518, Victoria, TX 77901; or vcmga@vicad.com, or comment on this column at VictoriaAdvocate.com.