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Toxic☠️ To avoid

🍇 White Bryony

Bryonia dioica · Cucurbitaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it"Devil's turnip, purging vine" — the only red-berried vine in our hedgerows is also the most violently purgative.
White Bryony — Bryonia dioica

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Climbing vine found in hedgerows and thickets, the only wild cucurbit in temperate Europe. It features tendrils and small, bright red berries in highly visible clusters during autumn. Its root—huge and fleshy, resembling a large turnip or beet—has earned it the nickname "devil's turnip" and is its most toxic part.

  1. climbing vine with simple tendrils, 5-lobed palmate leaves resembling grapevine leaves
  2. small greenish flowers with 5 petals, dioecious plant (separate male and female plants)
  3. spherical berries, bright red at maturity, clustered along the stem
  4. huge, fleshy tuberous root, white to yellowish
Sizevine up to 4 m
FloweringMay-September, berries August-October
Habitathedgerows, thickets, slopes, woodland edges on rich soils

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Wild Grapevine (foliage) (Vitis vinifera subsp. sylvestris)none for grapevine

To tell them apart: bryony berries are bright red rather than purple/black like grapes, and they grow in loose clusters along the stem instead of hanging in compact bunches

☠️ What kills

nomCucurbitacins (severe purgative bitter glycosides), concentrated mainly in the root and berries
dose letale estimeearound 40 berries can be dangerous for an adult, a few berries are enough to poison a young child; chewing the root is even more toxic (approx, precise lethal dose not established)
delai1 to 3 h
symptomesviolent vomiting and diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, severe dehydration that can become dangerous in children or the elderly, neurological disorders in severe cases
antidoteno specific antidote; rehydration and symptomatic treatment
morts documenteessevere cases documented, particularly in young children who consumed large numbers of berries; confirmed deaths remain rare (approx)

First steps : Call Poison Control immediately if berries are ingested or if there is contact with crushed root. Do not induce vomiting. Monitor closely for dehydration, especially in children, and keep a sample of the plant.

Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.