Jimsonweed

Also known as hell's bells, devil's trumpet, devil's weed, tolguacha, Jamestown weed, stinkweed, locoweed, pricklyburr, false castor oil plant, devil's cucumber, and thornapple. This fine specimen was spotted on my afternoon walk to Castor Hanglands.

All parts of the plant are very toxic, and this has given rise to many of its colloquial names. Fortunately it tastes unpleasant so poisoning is fairly rare. Most poisoning results from the consumption of a tea made from the seeds either for its alleged medicinal benefits or for its hallucinogenic effects. Some arise from alleged 'herbal remedies' but the majority are the result of attempts to use the plants psychoactive properties recreationally.

The name Jamestown Weed derives from a particular incident in 1679 where soldiers based in Jamestown ate leaves in a salad. In the “History and Present State of Virginia” (1705), Robert Beverly gives an account of what happened. “Some of them eat plentifully of it, the Effect of which was a very pleasant Comedy ; for they turn’d natural Fools upon it for several Days: One would blow up a Feather in the Air; another would dart Straws at it with much Fury; another, stark naked, was sitting in a Corner, like a Monkey, grinning and making mows at them ; a Fourth would fondly kiss and paw his Companions and smear in their Faces with a Countenance more antick than any Dutch Droll. . . . A thousand such simple Tricks they play’d, and after Eleven Days, return’d to themselves again, not remembering anything that had pass’d.”