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We have a very weird plant growing ooutside our pig pen,at first we thought it may have been a stray seed from the feedstuff but on closer examination of the contents of the feed we realised that of course we could identify all the components if they germinated! Obviously we need to know what it is as it would be great if it was edible but if it is toxic then we really nedd to pull it up before some of the stock begin to eat it!
A brief description:
The plant is around 3ft tall,having put on all of its growth this year.It has a central green,thick,non pliable stem with "branches" of equal thickness,they are smooth and green.It has a trumpet shaped white flowers that never seem to open fully,but,when they drop off a large,spiny shell appears,like an elongated conker shell,these spines mean buisiness! We are waiting for the shells to burst open to reveal the contents but I feel it will be a single "nut". The leaves are similar to a castor oil plant but more pointy on the edges and slightly hairy. Can anyone identify if we have a "friend" or a "foe"??? So far the pig hasnt eaten it but.....

This is a very poisonous plant, you must get rid of it immediately, it is a datura thorn apple, the seeds are potentially harmful if eaten, mostly animals will ignore it, but children often eat seeds, if you google this name, you will get some more information

diggernotdreamer wrote:This is a very poisonous plant,

and then some daft sod gives it a lovely attractive name like thorn apple because of course kids would never eat an apple


Pete

They gave the deadly nightshade plant the name belladonna so it is not the only poisonous plant with a more pleasant name

sleepyowl wrote:They gave the deadly nightshade plant the name belladonna so it is not the only poisonous plant with a more pleasant name

Belladona was so called due to it containing atropine

Ladies would put it in thier eyes to look bella (dilated pupils is sexy innit)

Datura is a powerfull hallucinogen

Crikey! Thank you all! Ill pull it at once! How on earth did it get into my field??? Thank you so much,poor piggy couldve met a very nasty end!

Ok just looked it up on the net,oh man! what with that and "the mushrooms" growing in the old brassica bed its a wonder we havent been raided! In all my years growing stuff Ive never seen anything like it before! One odd thing I found "historically it was mixed with other herbs and smoked {???} to help asthma! Ill bet it helped no end! Bet that was nowt to do with Pliny!

This self seeded in my garden too, I've not idea how it got there. The leaves looked like quinoa and it wasn't until it flowered I realised what I had. I'm glad my toddler didn't munch on any of the leaves before I yanked it up!
I've always found it a bit odd when they say something was smoked to help with asthma!

Apparently the seeds can lay dormant in the soil for years and when the soil is disturbed {like by Piggy} they germinate. Feel such a fool as I was rather proud of it thinking it may be something tropical....not as bad as my mum who carefully replanted a bed full of Rosebay Willowherb thinking they were Foxgloves,they looked pretty though! Seriously though thanks to you all as kit was only a matter of time before someone or something took a bite or two with horrible results.