Tutti Fruity

A few years ago I noticed a beautiful wildflower growing in the ditch near the park entrance. It is tiny and delicate, but vividly purple with a yellow center. This year, for the first time, I noticed it had translucent, juicy-looking scarlet berries.
I bet all you nature lovers already know what this unmistakable plant is: deadly nightshade. And the ‘deadly’ part isn’t there for poetic effect.
For the most part I don’t take warnings about toxic plants seriously. When I was very young, we had a chokecherry tree in our back yard that had practically inedible fruit. My grandmother warned me that eating chokecherries and milk together was poisonous. So of course I mashed up a bunch of them, added milk (and sugar, because face it, they taste nasty) and checked it out. Not even a tummy ache. When I told grandma what I had done, the blood drained from her face. Now that I am an adult and understand how toxic plants can be, I understand her shock.
(Poison sumac didn’t kill me either. I tried that after I saw some deer eating it.)
Several mushrooms are deadly, but sometimes the ‘poisonous’ warning is a signal that they contain hallucinogens. Too bad there is no way of sorting out one from the other without an experienced friend.
Now that I am old, and no longer feel adventurous about my health, I think I will ask the Parks Department to get rid of the nightshade. Although its flower is delightful, that fruit looks mighty tasty.
Nancy Sherer