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[personal profile] 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.

Date: 2012-10-08 07:21 pm (UTC)
steorra: Part of Saturn in the shade of its rings (Default)
From: [personal profile] steorra
!!! at sweet potatoes being a kind of morning glory.
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.
Edited Date: 2012-10-08 07:30 pm (UTC)

Date: 2012-10-08 10:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] marveen.livejournal.com
Well, there are the "wonderberry" type of edible nightshade...but I'm not rushing over to try one.

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.)

Date: 2012-10-08 11:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sayga.livejournal.com
There was a news article here recently about giant hogweed found at an elementary school. It looks like Queen Anns lace, only HUGE, but it is also toxis and will blister a person's skin, leave scars and cause blindness if it gets in your eyes (and it was introduced to the US on purpose, because it's pretty. Nice). The article went on to describe the differences between Queen Ann's Lace and giant hogweed. It's pretty important to know the difference between a lot of plants. I'm growing catnip, which sometimes looks like stinging nettle, but luckily for now we don't have stinging nettles in our yard.

I did not know sweet potato was in the morning glory family, though. That's kind of crazy!

Date: 2012-10-09 01:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] elenbarathi.livejournal.com
It amazes me that anyone could confuse hawthorn and nightshade. Hello, hawthorn has thorns - hence the name - not to mention being a tree, and otherwise bearing almost no resemblance to nightshade. Sheesh.

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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