Deadly Nightshade Has The Deadliest Berries On Earth

[Music] this is one of the deadliest plants in the world eat just a handful of its berries and you'd be in real trouble a favorite tool of kings queens and witches this toxic plant lives up to its name this is deadly nightshade hey i'm tasha the amazon and you're watching floralogic a tropa belladonna is a cute eurasian cherry producing plant with a terrible reputation just to give you an idea in addition to its common name the deadly nightshade it's also been called the death cherry the devil's berry and the beautiful death and to be fair it's fully deserved this plant is insanely toxic it contains propane alkaloids to defend itself from insects that try to eat it but in vertebrates those alkaloids affect the smooth muscles of the body including the urinary and gi tracts and sweat glands in some cases it can cause extreme dry mouth hallucinations delirium and even death and of course people have weaponized it in the year 10 30 macbeth and duncan the first of scotland used deadly nightshade tea to poison the invading english troops of harold harefoot killing many of them and forcing the rest to retreat emperor augustus of rome is rumored to have been poisoned by his wife livia using this plant she wanted to make sure her kid inherited the throne spicy this plant is native to eurasia but it's spread to africa and north america so there's a good chance there's a few near you here's how to identify it so you can steer clear of it they're a little over a meter tall with small bell-shaped flowers and long leaves which can be about 15 centimeters long the berries are small and circular and both the berries and the flowers start off green but as they mature and become more toxic they turn purple i'm serious stay away from this plant just two berries are enough to kill a child the roots are the most toxic part of the deadly nightshade but a single leaf has enough poisonous alkaloids to kill an adult the berries are slightly sweet but if you eat more than a handful you're in trouble some animals like rabbits sheep and cows seem to be resistant to its effects bees readily consume its nectar and sometimes end up making slightly toxic honey dogs unfortunately are not that lucky so make sure to keep your pooch away from these killer plants but of course industrious people have learned to use it in small doses for reasons other than regicide in the mediterranean for example it's been used as a cosmetic the scientific name belladonna means beautiful woman up until the middle ages some women would make a sort of diluted tea and use it as eye drops the alkaloids would affect the normal functioning of the smooth muscles of the eye and would cause pupils to dilate giving them a unique look cleopatra apparently used it regularly though the product was known to cause long-term damage to vision people were really into dilated pupils in those days deadly nightshade and some of its toxic relatives have been proposed as medicine for a number of health issues although there's very little evidence that they work at all chronic pain irritable bowel syndrome asthma and hemorrhoids are just some of the ailments it's been used to treat unfortunately as far as we know most of the positive effects have most likely been cases of the placebo effect but with the right dosage it's been shown to improve mood libido and cause hallucinations so in other words it's been used recreationally in the middle ages the church used to carry out witch hunts which often targeted drug addicts deadly nightshade was a relatively common ingredient of which is brew and caused its users to behave strangely to hallucinate and give them the feeling of being able to fly of course there were other compounds in their brews medieval surgeons used it too as an anesthetic but it often caused patients to behave erratically and have vivid dreams as religious persecution ramped up its use was discontinued as surgeons were afraid of being labeled as sorcerers so that's the story of a plant that started out by making compounds to fight off bugs and ended up as a favorite of kings queens and witches you might be curious to see this one out in the wild but just make sure you don't touch it [Music] they're so tasty [Music] a healthy mountain treat six hours later from both ends i mean i hope they're blackberries we're gonna find out because i just ate like two handfuls so what should i talk about next let me know in the comments and don't forget to subscribe for new episodes of floralogic every other week i'm tasha the amazon see you soon [Music] you

Channel: Animalogic

Views: 968,679

Keywords: animals, animal, logic, education, animalogic, crazy, ugly, weird, gross, beautiful, interesting, facts, about, information, info, school, research, learn, learning, smart, 4k, nature documentary, nature doc, floralogic, second nature, deadly nightshade, death berry, king killer, macbeth, tea, Atropa belladonna, bella, donna, belladonna, toxic, toxin, poison, poisenous plant, devil’s berry, death cherry, beautiful death, dangerous, plant, flora, backyard, berries

Id: 5x3P96BP0-Y

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021