Botanical- Thorn Apple.
A strange plant started to grow during the summer. At first I thought it was Self-Heal as the garden gets a lot of that. As time went on, this strange plants leaves began to be stripped. I didn’t know who was eating it but they seemed to like it.
Then a flower appeared. It didn’t open in the day and stayed tight shut. The outer petals had a tinge of lilac on them. I was very intrigued.
On a night time mooch around the garden to check for frogs and moths, I noticed that the flower was suddenly open. A big white trumpet of a flower that had small beetles inside. Strange, I thought, but it looks nice so I will monitor.
Over the next few weeks a large spikey bulb started to grow out of the stems. Each day it got bigger and bigger until the spikes became so big it started to split. I immediately consulted my Collins Wild Flower book and found it to be a Thorn Apple. This was most exciting news as I had never seen one before.
The only person I had ever heard mention one, was Richard Mabey on his programme The Unofficial Countryside. Go HERE to watch it and skip if you like to 25m:26s to see the gigantic Thorn Apple he finds on a refuse tip. What a day out that would have been!
My Thorn Apple grew and grew until the seed pod started to go brown and open. Around this point knowing that the seeds were numerous and that they can live dormant for 100 years, the decision was made to take it to plant heaven. I really hope that I get another one growing next year, but if not I am very pleased about my poisonous hallucinogenic Devils Apple. Go HERE to read more about Thorn Apples and enjoy the nice picture from Köhler's Medicinal Plants.
