Black Bryony

Tamus communis. This was a bit of a mystery to me. It is scrambling up the hedge, twining clockwise around everything it meets. Before the flowers appeared it looked a bit like bindweed on speed! I needed some help with identification as I didn't know where in the flower book to even start looking.

Anyway, it turns out that it is our only native member of the yam family. Every part of it is poisonous. I need to keep my eyes peeled for strings of bright red (poisonous) berries in Autumn.