Strange Things

I find the strangest things on my walks around the farm. Just yesterday, I happened upon what turns out to be a Thornapple in our upper field. I snapped off one of the seed pods and brought it home to figure out what it could be.

It looked like something from a fairy tale -- a very scary one. Here my little sweetie, try a bite of this....

It's about the size of a large walnut and covered with sharp spines. My research determined that it is very poisonous – the seeds, fatally so.

The Thornapple, also called Devil's Trumpet, Stickweed, Datura, and Locoweed, is an annual herb that is strongly narcotic and hallucinogenic. The whole plant is poisonous, but the seeds are the most active; neither drying nor boiling destroys the poisonous properties. According to my sources, the usual consequences of the poison when taken in sufficient quantity are dimness of sight, dilation of the pupil, giddiness and delirium, sometimes amounting to mania.

It is also sometimes called Jimson Weed or Jamestown Weed; it got this name from the town of Jamestown, Virginia, where British soldiers were drugged with it while attempting to suppress Bacon's Rebellion. They spent 11 days generally appearing to have gone insane.

Yep, I'm glad I didn't bite into it.