Not all plants are friendly. Here are two poisonous in all their parts. The first you’ve probably heard of since it brought Socrates to his end. The other … not so commonly known.
Hemlock. Lethal. 17 June 2019
Usually marked with random purple blotches, the stalk here is exceptionally bright, veers more to red, and barely shows any green. It grows to around 6′.
White Bryony 17th June 2019
A member of the cucumber family, those little white flowers produce bright red berries in late summer/early autumn. And as you can see by the tendrils, it”s a climber; it scrambles around and over everything.
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crispina kemp 
There is a story in here somewhere.. love pretty poisons…..
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They’re very tempting. If you don’t know what they are. I can remember some news item about a lad who was rushed to hospital. He’d made a peashooter from a hemlock stem. Lips around it …. Thing is, there are so many similiar plants in that family, and most are not poisonous. Indeed, parsley, watercress, dill, fennel, carrot … just the ones that come to mind. As to bryony, there’s a black and a white. In late summer their berries hang across the hedges like early Christmas trimmings.
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Awesome! There are so beautiful despite their deadly nature. 🙂
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Yea. It’s the first time I’ve taken photos of the hemlock in flower. It wasn’t so easy to find definition amongst a huge and high bank of it
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Well, you did a great job and I loved the accompanying information. I am not that good at recognizing plant species or maybe I haven’t spent enough time in the country side to find the confidence in the art. But I do have the appreciation for it. 🙂
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I can tell that you do.
I have to admit, I still refer to a field guide with many species. Also, the names I learned as a kid, seem to have going missing and returned with erroneous identifications. So, always best to refer
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I agree. It’s better to learn again than go through boasting about information that might be inaccurate. I admire your perseverance for facts and the nature to help the readers get a correct understanding. Few do that.
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That’s me, it would seem 🙂
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🙂
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Sorry…my autocorrect has been working against me for a while now! *”they are….”
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Forgiven. My trick is to omit words. Fingers dance across the keys too fast.
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😂 Despite its malicious attempts at sabotaging my conversations, I still haven’t turned off the autocorrect. My resolve is to beat my smart phone at its own game. So far I am failing…
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Ah, I have a phone that suggests, but I have to opt. And on the laptop I have grammarly … which programme I have removed from Word cos it’s a pain
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I used to have grammarly. It can be a useful plugin while surfing the web and commenting online. But gradually it became unnecessary and an annoying interjection.
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I found it slowed the process of writing on Word so much that I was stressing. I’m trying out Pro-Writing-Aid now, and so far, ok.
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I admire those of you who know your plants… I am beyond clueless…
They are lovely, though, aren’t they? Perfect to catch unsuspecting innocents…
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Though, of course, the plants don’t plan to kill us. They’re merely practising self-defence.
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Of course not.
So funny. I just downloaded your CCC picture into my blog post and your comment popped up at the same time!
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Synchronistic. 🙂
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Indeed!
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That’s some very pretty poison! 😀 ❤
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Aren’t they just. I did have a third plant to include here, but the photos weren’t really up to it
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I have heard about hemlock, it’s a poison. But one can’t really distinguish between the poisonous and the edible. They are looking more normal than ever, or that is the trick 😅
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The way I see it, while an insect or such would be dead before its poison discouraged its attacker, a plant would merely be torn and shredded. Therefore the insect needs to advertise loudly: Do No Touch Me. While a plant can be more laid back about it.
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Yes. I understand and agree with you 🙂
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I’d heard that the berries of the white bryony are poisonous but I hadn’t realised the whole plant was toxic. That is a very red stem on the hemlock. I’m no good at all at identifying plants with umbels of small white flowers – they all look the same to me and I can never remember the differences in the leaves… 🙂
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White bryony: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/wildflowers/white-bryony
I think you’ll find it the Black Bryony that isn’t quite so lethal. It’s roots are used as a purgative.
And I did have photos that showed a more normal purple-blotched stem (very distinctive), but the shots were crap.
As to identifying all the hundreds in that umbel-family … no way. I can probably count on one and a bit hands those I can name. But I do know there’s more than the hemlock that’s poisonous. There’s a waterside plant, often mistaken for watercress, with tragic results.
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