September 4th, 2012
Last time I posted I needed information on an plant that I had found along the path we regularly walk.
Well I have that information now thanks to Glen of Regina, his
Website "Gardening on the Prairies". Glen said he had never seen this plant as it is very rare.
"Pretty sure your plant is Hyoscyamus niger (Black Henbane). There's a
photo in "Wildflowers Across the Prairies" (now out of print). Budd's
Flora of the Canadian Prairie provinces lists it as rare, Flora of
Alberta lists it as occasional. Habitat listed is waste ground,
roadsides, and gardens. It's introduced (is a non-native weed), and
poisonous. Check Google images for "Hyoscyamus niger" and you'll see
some photos similar to yours. Good find, I haven't seen it before."
Thanks Glen.
I went back to the location and it was still blooming. Here are a couple more shots of it and one beside my bike helmet to show the size of the plan. Sorry Glen I didn't have a ruler, I guess my foot would have worked too.
In the top photo is the plant and where it is situated to the path.
Toxicity and historical usage. From Wikipedia.org
Apothecary vessels for Hyoscyamus preparations, Germany 19th century it was historically used in combination with other plants, such as mandrake, deadly nightshade, and datura as an anaesthetic potion, as well as for its psychoactive properties in "magic brews." These psychoactive properties include visual hallucinationsand a sensation of flight. Its usage was originally in continental Europe, Asia and the Arab world, though it did spread to England in theMiddle Ages. The use of henbane by the ancient Greeks was documented by Pliny. The plant, recorded as Herba Apollinaris, was used to yield oracles by the priestesses of Apollo.
The name henbane dates at least to A.D. 1265. The origins of the word are unclear but "hen" probably originally meant death rather than referring to chickens. Hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane alkaloids have been found in the foliage and seeds of the plant. Common effects of henbane ingestion in humans include hallucinations, dilated pupils, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common symptoms such as tachycardia, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension, hyperpyrexia and ataxia have all been noted.
Henbane can be toxic, even fatal, to animals in low doses. Not all animals are susceptible, for example, the larvae of some Lepidopteraspecies including Cabbage Moth eat henbane.
It was sometimes one of the ingredients in gruit, traditionally used in beers as a flavouring, until replaced by hops in the 11th to 16th centuries (for example, the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516 outlawed ingredients other than barley, hops, and water).
In 1910, an American homeopath living in London, Hawley Harvey Crippen, allegedly used scopolamine, an alkaloid extracted from henbane, to poison his wife.
Henbane is thought to have been the "hebenon" poured into the ear of Hamlet's father (although other candidates for hebenon exist).
So until next time "Discover It and Live It"
