It occurs to me to mention that sweet potatoes are, of course, a type of morning glory.

[conuly]

The irony absolutely kills me. They are the only type of morning glory I ever want to see in my yard ever again. I can't even plant beans because when they come up they look like morning glory seedlings and I don't know whether I should pluck them or let them be!

My mother reminded me we might have some potato potatoes out there, but they're by a hole with bees in it. I plan to take some boiling water to the bees, I've just been putting it off (I hate being mean to wild things that can't help living the way they're supposed to live, but really, I can't have bees smack in the middle of the yard), so maybe I'll do that.

Edit: And regular potatoes are a type of nightshade, along with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. It's very strange that such a poisonous family can have so many delicious plants in it - but of course, you can't eat all of any of those plants.

Nightshade grows all around here, and the nieces can identify it pretty reliably. Most people don't seem to know what it is or I'm sure they'd yank it up. A while back in the gardening comm on LJ somebody posted a picture of some delicious looking berries (her words) and asked if they were safe to eat.

The first several comments said "OMG NO! That's nightshade!" as indeed it was. Then there was one saying she thought it was hawthorn and therefore safe, followed by a few more top-level comments reiterating that it was nightshade. I was so horrified by the thought that that middle commenter might stumble across some nightshade and eat it that I spent several minutes pointing out the differences between the two plants. The moral lesson here is that you really need to be very observant before you tell others that this or that berry is safe to eat.

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

We've got giant hogweed out here too; it's evil stuff. The flowers are white lacey umbels like Queen Anne's Lace, but there the resemblance ends, because Queen Anne's Lace is a little roadside flower, and Giant Hogweed is a giant sprawling monster, like Poison Hemlock on steroids. The sap is a phototoxin; reacts with sunlight to destroy tissue, and it's under pressure in those big hollow stalks, like alien blood in Aliens. Totally evil. It originated in the Caucasus, probably at Castle Dracula.

Stinging nettles are a wonderful plant - anything cooked spinach can do, cooked nettles can do better. Mmmm, nettle fettuchine, one of the culinary pleasures of Spring....

[conuly]

OMG, I thought that hogweed plant (under a different name) was invented for a Vivian Vande Velde novel!

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

No, srsly, the stuff is real (http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/giant-hogweed.aspx). Horrifying, neh? It's like finding out that triffids are real - which I hope we never will, but if giant hogweed exists, who knows what else is out there?