Bittersweet or Woody Nightshade: Beware of this Poisonous, Invasive Plant

Now that summer is waning down, I'm getting tired of maintaining my garden. More and more weeds are creeping into the flower beds I pride myself on keeping pristine. This is inevitable towards the end of July each year. I just get tired of maintaining everything I have growing! The problem is I've let an invasive, poisonous plant creep into my backyard uninvited. Known by many names, this creeping vines' correct names are bittersweet nightshade or woody nightshade¹.

When I first noticed the bittersweet nightshade vine creeping up the fence behind my garden shed back in June, I shrugged it off because it was small with no flowers or berries. Now, in August, that small vine had turned into a behemoth! That poison, invasive plant now had the telltale small, star-shaped, purple flowers with long yellow stamens. It had the classic egg-shaped berries, in all stages of ripening, ranging from green to yellow, orange and maraschino cherry red. Its telltale unique leaves (see the picture) were starting to grow up the side of my shed, and everywhere in between.

I was horrified when I first noticed those bittersweet nightshade berries. My grandmother had drilled it into my sister and me when we were very young to stay away from this plant, because it and its berries were deadly poisonous! Therefore, remembering my grandmother's admonitions from early childhood, I knew I needed to eradicate my yard of this poisonous, invasive plant as soon as possible! I was terrified that my cats would be tempted to chew on the vine or berries during their garden romps.

The poison, invasive plant I am referring to, and have known all my life until doing research for this article as deadly nightshade, is actually named bittersweet or woody nightshade. To me, the name bittersweet nightshade implies that you could eat this plant. DO NOT!!!! Every part of it, leaves, berries and stems are poisonous and can harm and possibly kill children, cats, dogs, and livestock ²! I have friends who lost one of their cows on their Pennsylvania farm to bittersweet nightshade! It contains the narcotic toxin solanine ². In large doses, solanine can cause numerous serious effects including a decrease in heart rate, delirium, central nervous system paralysis, and convulsive death ³.

It turns out, deadly nightshade is really the plant belladonna. (It has purple flowers, too, but the berries are unmistakably black ⁴. People, especially witches, it is said, grow belladonna for all sorts of cures and potions.) Believe it or not, belladonna and bittersweet nightshade belong to the same botanical family (Solanaceae) as the tomato plant, potato plant, and tobacco plant ³.

Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) originated in Europe ², but was brought to North America as an ornamental, perennial vine in the 1800's ¹. It quickly escaped the confines of Victorian gardens and became an invasive menace, choking out native plants wherever it spread. In fact, this extremely poisonous, invasive plant has rapidly spread throughout the United States and can be found in most all states except those with arid climates. Surprisingly, birds can eat bittersweet nightshade berries without getting poisoned ². They help its expansive migration across the country by dropping the seeds after eating the berries. In fact, it has become so common that almost every shady, moist nook and cranny of every yard in America bittersweet nightshade growing, undetected or otherwise. (Hence, the narrow space between my garden shed and fence (shade), where I keep a maple leaf compost pile (moisture).

Bittersweet nightshade is really easy to recognize once you have seen it and smelled its pungent odor one time. Study the pictures I've included in this article carefully. The first photo is of the berries and leaves (see that peculiar shape?). The second photo is of the purple, star-shaped flowers. If you find this poison, invasive vine growing on your property, I strongly recommend you get rid of it!

To remove bittersweet nightshade, make sure you wear gloves that won't absorb the sap and make sure that no skin is exposed. It can give you a nasty rash if you don't take these precautions! I wear jeans, rubber garden gloves and a long sleeve shirt when I have to remove bittersweet nightshade. Everything, including the gloves, goes into the washer immediately after I'm finished with the task. Make sure you remove any leaves and berries that accidentally fall to the ground while you are tackling this invasive vine, as everything is poisonous.

This poisonous, invasive vine can flower and produce berries anytime from May through September ² . If you have kids or pets in your yard, or even livestock on your land, remove bittersweet nightshade as soon as you identify it!

Sources:

1. "Solanum dulcamara," Wikipedia.

2. Bittersweet Nightshade Identification - Solanum dulcamara, kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-

3. Botanical.com - A Modern Herbal | Nightshade, Woody, botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/n/nighwo06.html

4. Deadly nightshade: Definition from Answers.com, answers.com/topic/deadly-nightshade.