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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.
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.
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Date: 2012-10-08 07:21 pm (UTC)Thanks for pointing that out. That's neat and I didn't know it.
Also, regarding yummy vegetables coming from poisonous families, a friend of mine is fond of pointing out that carrots also belong to a rather poisonous family.
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Date: 2012-10-08 10:37 pm (UTC)I don't get the "delicious looking" paradigm. Honeysuckle berries are beautiful, but not edible (bellyache and extreme digestive upset). Hollyberries are lovely glossy red....emetic. Red elderberries are toxic eaten raw (most of the plant is, actually). Nightshade is pretty as well (noted above).
You ONLY ever CONSIDER eating it if you a) know what it is, or b) have observed OTHER HUMANS eating it in the past with no ill effects, preferably both. (Birds love hollyberries.)
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Date: 2012-10-08 11:57 pm (UTC)I did not know sweet potato was in the morning glory family, though. That's kind of crazy!
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Date: 2012-10-09 01:45 am (UTC)In North America, all berries with drupelets are safe to eat: everything in the blackberry/raspberry family, and also mulberries, which are the only tree-fruit with drupelets I know of. Red huckleberry is the only red non-drupelet berry I know that's edible for humans, besides wild strawberries (which are obviously strawberries) - most red berries are bird-berries; people-berries tend to be purple - though that doesn't mean every purple berry is safe.
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