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Deadly☠️ To avoid

🌾 Black Henbane

Hyoscyamus niger · Solanaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Blood-veined flower, seeds of madness” — the foul odor warns you, the seeds kill you.
Black Henbane — Hyoscyamus niger

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Plant with a characteristic foul odor and hairy, sticky foliage, growing on rubble and wasteland. Its yellowish flowers veined with dark purple mark one of Europe's most toxic Solanaceae, historically associated with witchcraft and crime. Its seeds, contained in a small capsule opening like a lid, are the main source of accidental poisonings.

  1. hairy leaves, sticky to the touch, with irregularly lobed edges, strong foul odor
  2. pale yellow to cream flowers, veined with dark purple in a characteristic network, in a spike
  3. fruit in a small capsule (pyxis) opening by a lid, containing numerous small gray seeds
  4. hairy-glandular, sticky stem
Size30-80 cm
Floweringjuin-septembre
Habitatrubble, wasteland, roadsides, nitrogen-rich wasteland

⚠️ Not to be confused with

No common edible confusion at adult stage (—)—

To tell them apart: the foul odor and sticky-hairy feel of the whole plant generally deter accidental foraging; the main risk involves voluntary ingestion of seeds for recreational purposes, with dangerous hallucinogenic effects

☠️ What kills

nomAnticholinergic tropane alkaloids: hyoscyamine, scopolamine, atropine
dose letale estimeea few grams of seeds (a small teaspoon) can be fatal in adults; the precise lethal dose varies depending on the plant's alkaloid content (Toxinz, approx)
delai30 min à 1 h
symptomessevere anticholinergic syndrome: dry mouth, mydriasis, tachycardia, red and hot skin, agitation, hallucinations, delirium, seizures, coma
antidotephysostigmine possible in intensive care for severe forms; otherwise symptomatic treatment
morts documenteesyes, historically (henbane was used as a poison in several famous criminal cases, including the Crippen case in 1910 in the UK) and in modern toxicological literature during recreational use

First steps : Call the poison control center urgently, especially in case of agitation, confusion, or fever after ingestion. Do not induce vomiting. Keep the seeds or plant fragments involved for identification.

Sources (3)

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.