An understanding of Plant Families goes a long way to improving your ability to identify species.
When I was first beginning to study botany, I heard that Jimsonweed grew in our local wild areas. I didn’t know what Jimsonweed looked like, but I’d read that the plant had long been used by local Native Americans in certain religious and puberty rite ceremonies. It was a strong narcotic which was used in cultural ceremonies, prepared in a careful manner.
JIMSONWEED
While talking to a friend of my older brother on the telephone, he told me that Jimsonweed was common in our nearby wild area. I talked him into taking me there that afternoon and pointing out the plant. We bicycled over to the Arroyo Seco on the west side of town, and Joe showed me the low-growing plant. I got off my bicycle and down on the ground to feel the soft texture of the leaves. They somewhat resembled large lambs quarter leaves. This is probably why the early settlers of Jamestown, Virginia ate the east coast Jimsonweed. They thought they’d discovered an American version of lambs quarter but instead were narcotized by their “Jamestown weed” for days. (The name Jimsonweed comes to us today as a corruption of the word Jamestownweed.)
I rubbed the leaves between my fingers and smelled the strange odor. It reminded me of rancid peanut butter. The specimen that Joe showed me had a few dead branches from the previous season’s growth. It still contained some of the thorny seed pods, which gives rise to another of its common names, thornapple. There are several species of Datura known as Jimsonweed. The common east coast variety grows a bit taller and is very common along roadsides. In the west, the low-growing Datura is found in dry waste areas. 
The flowers are tubular and up to six inches long, colored white with a hint of purple. This was my first introduction to a member of the Nightshade Family. Though I was never tempted to eat, drink, smoke, or otherwise consume this plant for its narcotic effects, a friend in high school once decided to smoke the dried flowers of the related angel’s trumpet. For the next three days, he had no vision, and was wholly incoherent. Asked why he smoked the flowers, my friend said “It seemed like a good idea.” Needless to say, he never again repeated his foolishness.
Over the years, high school students of Southern California’s high desert try to get high with some part of the Jimsonweed plant. We read about their hospitalization in the newspapers. These are apparently the same students who haven’t yet discovered the library.
The Jimsonweed which grows wild in the eastern U.S. is Datura stramonium. In the western states, the more common Datura is D. wrightii, also known as Sacred Datura, which has also long been used as a sacred herb among the Chumash and others.
WESTERN BLACK NIGHTSHADE
Soon I learned about another common wild member of the Nightshade Family, the western black nightshade, Solanum douglasii. This is a common wild plant of the west, sometimes known as wild tomato. This plant can ironically be found listed as both toxic or edible, depending on the orientation of the book’s author. It is toxic– in the same way the ordinary tomato is toxic — if you consume the raw leaves or the green fruits raw, it can induce vomitting. But once the western black nightshade’s fruits turn black, they are tasty additions to salads. Each fruit is small, maybe a quarter inch wide. But when ripe, they are packed with flavor and resemble tarty cherry tomatoes.
Since this plant is often (incorrectly) referred to as “deadly nightshade,” I have received many shocked expressions over the years when people learn I eat the ripe fruits. This is why “common names” can be so misleading.
EDIBLE NIGHTSHADES
Once I began to research the Nightshade family, I discovered that many of our common foods are nightshades. Eggplants, tomatoes, tomatillos, bell peppers, all hot peppers (such as jalapenos, serranos, and habaneros) and all potatoes. These are some of our most important nutritional and culinary foods to which pages and pages are devoted in any seed catalog. In fact, because of their relationship, some horticulturists have created a plant which produces potatoes underground and tomatoes above ground.
The Nightshade family was beginning to look more and more important. Like the cultivated grasses that were the cornerstones of civilizations (corn, wheat, rice, barley, etc.), the edible nightshades have also been important, if not major, cultural foods. The Irish once subsisted on their potatoes, as did the highland Incas. A boiled or backed potato – with just a few spices – can still provide great sustenance to a hungry hobo. Hot and mild peppers are a sine qua non of Mexican and South American cookery. These peppers don’t just add spice, but they’re great sources of vitamin C and other nutrients. And just imagine Italian food before the introduction of the New World tomato!
TOBACCO
But not all members of the nightshade family are good to eat. Some members of this plant family can kill or intoxicate. All tobaccos, wild and cultivated, are nightshades. One Brazilian tobacco which is common in the west and south, known as tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca), resembles pokeweed when it is young. Pokeweed, incidentally, is also a poisonous plant as it matures, and everyone who eats the young pokeweed shoots knows that you boil it, change the water, and boil it again. People who’ve resided in Mexico or the Southern U.S. have encountered tree tobacco, assumed it was poke, and processed it like poke and eaten it. While poke’s toxins are water-soluble, tree tobacco’s are not, and such a dish can kill.
When I’ve told my students that tobacco is a poisonous plant, they ask me “Then how can people smoke it?” The answer is twofold: 1) Smoking something is not the same as eating something. The fact that you are burning the substance does cause some changes. And also, 2) People DO die from smoking; it just takes a little longer when you smoke the tobacco.
Anytime you recognize a plant as belonging to the Nightshade family, you should definitely not eat it until you have positively identified that particular species as a known edible.
Nightshade plants occur all over the United States. A very common wild variety in the Eastern part of the country is Solanum dulcamara, sometimes known as bittersweet. This is a common, vining plant which grows over hedges, and can even be seen hanging over trees with its bright orange-red fruits. These should not be eaten.
IDENTIFYING NIGHTSHADES
The Nightshade family has the pattern of five: five united sepals, five united petals, and five stamens. (Rarely, there are 3, 4, or 6 sepals.) When you horizontally cut a Nightshape fruit or capsule in half, you’ll see it divided into two chambers – and you can readily observe this pattern by cutting a tomato or bell pepper in two. You’ll see the same pattern with the wild Nightshade members.
Flowers are what determines botanical families, so if you want to get to know this family, begin by studying the flowers and fruits. Since most of us eat tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, and various other peppers, you can study these farm-grown nightshades in order to help identify the wild nightshades. The wild nightshades will have smaller fruits, but the patterns will be the same.
Leaves of all are alternately arranged, though the shapes vary widely. The leaves of a tomato and a potato bear some resemblance to each other. So do the leaves of jalapeno peppers and western black nightshade. The best way to familiarize yourself with this family is to examine the leaves and flowers of any wild or cultivated nightshades that you encounter. After a bit of observation, this group will be easy to recognize.
There are 85 genera of the Nightshade family with about 2300 species. In a book of Flora used by professional botanists in your area, you can ascertain which Nightshades should be found in your state.
One of the best books to assist in identifying plant families is Botany in a Day by Tom Elpel, available from the Store at www.SchoolofSelf-Reliance.com.
Also check out our other books on Foraging, such as Guide to Wild Foods and Useful Plants by Nyerges, and others.
