Ace Of Spades

It has been bitterly cold, mainly dull, windy and with rain and hail in Essex today but at least something is shining.

The beautiful, sinuously heart-shaped, new leaves of Black Bryony have just unfurled, nearly black and gleaming as if they have been varnished. Clockwise climbing Ace of Spades is no relation to anti-clockwise twisting White Bryony.

This poisonous plant is a member of the yam family and grows from a large tuber that in past times was used as a male false mandrake aphrodisiac to treat women.