Bittersweet Nightshade
These very beautiful bittersweet nightshade flowers here in the Mercer Slough of Bellevue, Washington are native to Europe and Asia, and arrived roughly in the 1860's. The berries were used by the Makah Indians as a medicine for stomach issues. Now naturalized throughout most of North America, this relative to the potato is an invasive weed that can grow in huge thickets and can compete with native plants. This plant is known to be VERY DANGEROUS to both humans and other animals and has caused people to die. It is said that once the berries are fully ripe (when they are bright red) that the amount of solanine - the toxic alkaloid, is greatly reduced. Seeds are spread by the common song sparrow and a few other birds that eat them, who are unaffected by the poisons the berries carry.
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- Keywords
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Amara Dulcis, Angiosperms, Asterids, Bellevue, Eudicots, European bittersweet, European nightshade, King County, Mercer Slough, PNW, Pacific NW, Pacific Northwest, Plantae, S. dulcamara, Solanaceae, Solanales, Solanum, Solanum dulcamara, Washington, alkoloid, attractive, autumn, beautiful, beauty, bitter, bitter nightshade, bittersweet, bittersweet nightshade, bloom, blooming, blooms, blossom, blossoms, blue, blue bindweed, blue nightshade, botany, bud, caution, climbing nightshade, color, danger, dangerous, deadly, deadly nightshade, death, dicot, dulcamara, fall, fellen, fellenwort, felonwood, felonwort, fever twig, flora, flower, flowers, forb, forest, fresh, green, herb, herbaceous, invasive, kill, mortal, natural, naturalised, nature, night-shade, nightshade, perennial, plant, plants, poison, poisonberry, poisonflower, poisonous, problem, purple, scarlet berry, semi-woody, snake berry, snakeberry, solanine, staff vine, subshrub, toxic, trailing bittersweet, trailing nightshade, vine, violet, violet bloom, violet-bloom, weed, wild, wildflower, wildflowers, woody night-shade, woody nightshade
- Contained in galleries
- Blue & Purple Wildflowers, Solanaceae (Nightshade Family)