Ran across this striking perennial earlier this week after loading some dry cows to go to town. Apparently common, I have never seen Silverleaf Nightshade, so I went back this morning to photograph it. Related to the tomato, potato and many other garden vegetables, it is poisonous with narcotic properties. And like many nightshades, natives prepared concoctions with the fruit to address headaches, sore throats, etc. Also the root was chewed before sucking rattlesnake venom from a bite. I continue to wonder how the natives knew when to pick the berries and how much of their preparations to ingest. All in the realm of the medicine keepers, I suspect it was not just trial and error.
drycrikjournal 
It’s all over our country, John. As kids we called it “the sticker plant” and noticed how the fruits, when ripe (yellow), look just like tomatoes; no wonder the Spanish at first refused to eat them!
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Thanks, Andy, for your perspective. We have plenty Purple Nightshade that produces red, then black, pea-sized fruit, some stage of which is quite poisonous I’m told.
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My dad came from Japan (early 1900s) near the Sakawa River; he told us there was a certain place on the river where people went to gather mud, to use as a poultice on burns. A feather was used to spread the mud, The burned area healed without scarring–now I read about new antibacterial things being found in mud and soil—
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Interesting that in our brilliance we are slow to come around to the basics. Thank you, Evelynne, I trust that you are well.
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We put mud on bee stings as I recall.
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Travel down path 65 to Kern County, you can find plenty of SLN in almonds and pistachios.
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How handy! Like Jimson Weed, a poisonous perennial immune to herbicides, I suppose.
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I’m in El Paso TX and this stuff is everywhere. I also spend a lot of time in Austin TX where it’s real common. The Austin variety has little or no spines though.
Hold the cherry of a lit cigarette against a flower petal and it will turn a brilliant green color. Something to do with the acids the cigarette contains. Mother natures litmus paper. I really love this plant although it’s considered invasive and harmful. The flowers remind me of Topaz and Amethyst. Beautiful.
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