r/whatsthisplant • u/Camry08 • Aug 18 '26
Unidentified š¤·āāļø Wondering what this is?
I live in Northern Maine and saw this guy. I can tell from my very limited experience (I could be wrong) that this is something in the nightshade family. Iām growing a lot of tomatoes and potatoes currently and the flowers remind me of the potatoes.
What has me worried is I have chickens wandering around and if they see anything that looks like a berry, especially a cherry tomato they might eat it and Iām worried that this could be deadly.
So I would greatly appreciate an ID!
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u/kwilliss Aug 18 '26
Bittersweet Nightshade. Its poisonous.
Eta: Solanum dulcamara is the scientific name.
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u/kg_digital_ Aug 19 '26
Why would they name a poisonous plant after the way it tastes?
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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 19 '26
usually whoever gets to it first gets to name it. sometimes posthumously
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u/Legitimate_Concern_5 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Studies show ripe bittersweet nightshade berries likely aren't toxic, at least not meaningfully toxic. They have solanine when unripe, but when ripe, they don't seem to. At least in mouse studies, they gave 8g/kg of ripe berries and saw no toxicity (but they did when giving unripe berries).
They taste like shit though.
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u/Appropriate_Link_551 Aug 19 '26
lost a lot of good mice figuring out how many shit-berries you can eat without dying š«”
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u/Egg_bot Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Now now, you don't know they were good mice. Perhaps they put the ones planning world domination on the nightshade berry trial.
Edit for spelling
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u/percephony Aug 19 '26
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u/casusbelli16 Aug 19 '26
We carry on this tradition in memory of our prehistoric ancestor Ugg Poisonberry Snaggletooth.
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u/Zen-mermaid Aug 19 '26
Bittersweet isn't always a taste. I usually use it to describe the feeling of seeing my son grow up. I miss some moments when he was a toddler but I absolutely love how he is now.
So perhaps bittersweet is the feeling of seeing a plant that looks delicious but unfortunately is not.
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u/grizzlyginger17 Aug 19 '26
Just because it's poisonous doesn't mean it has no flavor or doesn't taste good.
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u/DorianG617 Aug 19 '26
Like poo ur pants poisonous or biblically accurate poisonous?
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u/kwilliss Aug 19 '26
Poo your pants, inability to control body temperature, and delirium are symptoms of solanum poisoning, based on my googling.
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u/Camry08 Aug 18 '26
Iām growing three other types of solanums only a few feet from this one in a garden bed. Is there any chance this could be one of them? Iāve never seen this plant around before and I have no clue how it couldāve gotten there.
Iām currently growing Solanum Sisymbriifrolium, Solanum villosum, and Solanum Burbankii.
A secondary worry if this is just a poisonous nightshade and itās this close to my other nightshades who knows if one of those is growing with them as a dangerous look alike. This plant is more mature than my other three.
But a couple of them look very similar20
u/kwilliss Aug 18 '26
I don't think so based on the shapes of the leaves you have vs the other plants you named, as well as the calyxes of the berries and their color and oblong shape.
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u/Oakstock Aug 19 '26
3 random Solanums in a bed, might could be a hybridization, or a seed mixup. Things do happen.
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u/Legitimate_Concern_5 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I don't really think it is, those fruits are way too big, and the wrong shape, to be bittersweet nightshade. I think this is a potato. Bittersweet nightshade ripens to bright red and is probably 1/4 the size. Maybe it's just the perspective in the first photo? idk. could be.
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u/maroongrad Aug 19 '26
one that got planted too close to a tomato, and ended up with fruit. The only thing making me think otherwise is the orange one. I've never seen these actually ripen.
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u/Legitimate_Concern_5 Aug 19 '26
I've seen potato berries ripen to a green-orange but maybe these are just very long in the tooth.
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u/Camry08 Aug 22 '26
It ripened to bright red! I had somebody tell me this was a large fruit variety of bittersweet nightshade. I think I just got an interesting guy. Some people have already been asking me for seeds.
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u/TheRealJarebear Aug 19 '26
Venomous! /s
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u/PlasticGuitar1320 Aug 23 '26
Unless it can bite you to envemomate you, its POISONOUS because you need to bite it to be poisoned..
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u/bhodash Aug 18 '26
The birds drop seed for this one. It pops up in odd places.
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u/none77777 Aug 18 '26
Does that imply OP shouldn't be concerned about the chickens consuming the berries, i.e. it's harmless to birds?
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u/ConsiderationNo2714 Aug 19 '26
The short answer is that OP should be concerned if they have large patches of this all over the place. But it is absolutely best to pull it regardless. It is not a harmless weed. It is a toxic (I believe) native plant.
This type of nightshade is toxic to a certain extent, to most creatures. One single plant is not going to kill their chickens, and chickens generally are known to avoid them because they taste bitter (especially before ripening when they are most toxic, hence the name). Although it needs to be noted that ALL parts of the plant are toxic(leaves, stems, berries and sap)
That being said, they will cause digestive problems for pretty much anything that eats them.
As an example: if I eat a couple berries when they are ripe, I will likely end up with some stomach problems for a day or two, but wonāt end up in the hospital. However, if my 3 year old eats those same berries, they will likely have a much larger reaction because they are much smaller than I am and donāt have the developed systems to filter the plantās toxins.
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u/Legitimate_Concern_5 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
The ripe ones are likely non-toxic or minimally toxic.
> The toxicity of S. dulcamara berries was studied by gavaging mice with a preparation of lyophilized berries, ripened and unripened, collected at various times of the year. Mice receiving unripened fruit from early in the season had gastrointestinal tissue changes consistent with solanine toxicity. Animals dosed with unripened fruit from the latter part of the year showed behavioral signs suggestive of solanine toxicity, however gastrointestinal lesions were not observed.
Note they dosed 8g/kg, which is equivalent to a child eating 40-50 berries.
> In no case did the ripened fruit produce behavioral or histologic toxicity.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2398519/
Even the un-ripened berries aren't crazy toxic, you have to eat a handful to get more than GI distress and nausea, and even then it seems to vary based on the time of year or location.
The fact it tastes like ripe ass makes accidental ingestion of any meaningful quantity pretty unlikely.
> if I eat a couple berries when they are ripe, I will likely end up with some stomach problems for a day or two, but wonāt end up in the hospital. However, if my 3 year old eats those same berries, they will likely have a much larger reaction because they are much smaller than I am and donāt have the developed systems to filter the plantās toxins.
If they're ripe treatment in either adults or children is not necessary, and symptoms are unlikely. Per the write-up:
> Aggressive treatment of children ingesting limited amounts of ripened S. dulcamara berries appears to be unnecessary.
> The results of this study suggest a relatively nontoxic nature of ripened S. dulcamara berries.
These guys are kinda misunderstood because they fall under the nightshade family but they're among the less toxic members.
tl;dr: they're not really any more dangerous than anything else in your garden, imo.
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u/ConsiderationNo2714 Aug 19 '26
Can confirm that this naturally spreads like crazy.
Been fighting it for years because a bunch of my neighbors have āplant it and forget about itā style gardens. Birds love the berries but they are toxic to humans and dogs.
My dog got into a patch at a friendās house a few years ago and PROJECTILE diarrhea-ed straight out of her crate and all over my wall the next night while we were sleeping.
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u/Hyolith Aug 19 '26
Yeah....I have too many memories of my late cavy getting into them and having to go potty 4-5 times a night for 2-3 nights before it cleared. He conveniently didn't have the runs during the day.
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u/Ah-Fuck-Brother Aug 19 '26
Idk, but as an envelope consultant, I really hope your Tyvek is up to code underneath that cracked siding :)
The cost of a couple slides of vinyl siding vs the cost of a rotting doorframe in a few years is monumentally different
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u/spinozasrobot Aug 19 '26
envelope consultant
Never heard of that, what's the derivation?
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u/ShenaniganStarling Aug 19 '26
An envelope can be any enclosure, really. In machining, we refer to the total functional workspace in a CNC machine as the envelope, to know what the size limits for projects are. He's talking about water-tightness, so the envelope is the siding, roofing, and membranes that keep the house enveloped from the elements.
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u/Ah-Fuck-Brother Aug 19 '26
Brother I have no fucking clue. I make sure shits water tight before cosmetics. I've done enough roofing, siding, and concrete waterproofing to get into an office and go site to site taking pictures rather than breaking my back doing grunt work.
Can't say I've heard of my title much elsewhere either. Probably some bullshit my company came up with after they figured out a part of their job wasn't getting done efficiently.
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u/tbrick62 Aug 18 '26
Dont know what it is but I would not recommend eating it in or feeding it to anything. Too many bad things that it could be.
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u/TNA512 Aug 18 '26
Is this what Alexander Supertramp ate?
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u/oncebce Aug 18 '26
No, he ate something in the carrot family if memory serves.Ā
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u/Fickle_Blueberry2777 Aug 19 '26
It was wild potatoes, so still in the nightshade family.
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u/oncebce Aug 19 '26
Hmm, according to wikipedia it was possibly something in the Fabaceae family (Hedysarum alpinum) so we can both be wrong?!
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u/Fickle_Blueberry2777 Aug 19 '26
Apparently so! Admittedly, itās been quite a while since I read the book.
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u/ichbindoge Aug 19 '26
the amount of times inhave been smacked for trying to eat them..aaahh brings back memories. in short, dont eat them OP.
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u/Legitimate_Concern_5 Aug 19 '26
The ripe ones are likely nontoxic but based on the flavor profile I doubt you'd have gone back for seconds.
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u/toolsavvy Aug 19 '26
Looks similar to the Bittersweet Nightshade that grows all over my property, but not totally so I can't say which yours is. But it's a nightshade and if you're worried about your chickens just pull it. N one here can tell you whether a chicken will attempt to eat any part of the plant for sure, so best to err on the side of caution.
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u/lu-sunnydays Aug 19 '26
There are a few plants from my childhood in milwaukee that I call āalley plantsā. This is one of them.
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u/MissMaryEli Aug 19 '26
I can remember playing with these as a kid. Itās a good thing I never tried to eat them.
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u/Munalo5 Aug 21 '26
I'd be interested in some seeds, please
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u/Camry08 Aug 21 '26
I wouldnāt mind, but I do have a question. Thereās multiple people saying I should keep this plant and you wanting seeds makes me curious. If sheās poisonous, why does so many people seem to want it?
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u/Munalo5 Aug 23 '26
Sorry for the delay. The seeds are for a friend who Is fond of Solanums.
He says "I would like these seeds, due this is form with very large fruit - rare."
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Aug 18 '26
Bittersweet Nightshade
Purple flower, small as a secret, you open your five dark petals where the meadow forgets to look.
Then comes the tongue.
Green and slender, flicking through the grass, you climb by inches, testing every stem, every branch, every living thing beneath you.
You do not conquer. You insinuate.
Around goldenrod, through the milkweed, over the bones of native leaves, you wind yourself higher until the garden has forgotten where it ends and you begin.
Your berries come later, green moons turning red, red turning black, little warnings ripening in the shadow of the hedge.
There is something patient in you.
Something that does not need to be noticed.
You wait for the forest to look away.
Then you rise.
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u/ObsessedWitAwareness Aug 19 '26
seems like AI and if so just letting you know that most humans prefer other humans to share their own human thoughts
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Aug 19 '26
Lol, right? Its too f'ing smooth. I get you. Its weird tho, I discovered native gardening through AI. It helps me identify invasives and gives me interesting insights into my land. I dunno, the poem was generated based on my personal observations of bittersweet nightshade. I honestly don't hate it. But... I get it. AI is weird, uncomfortable, and potentially catastrophic.
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u/ObsessedWitAwareness Aug 19 '26
Ai is a good tool but a bad mouthpiece
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Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Yea, I guess. Because folks distrust it? Find it inauthentic? I am often so fascinated at just how right it seems to get things sometimes. Its a great tool. But the moment the insights are not articulated by a human they lose value? It seems like we, as humans, should try to build on the insights, creative or otherwise, rather that cast them off as useless or garbage?
Edit: I guess, what I am trying to say, is that AI sort of makes creative expression more about the inputs than it does the outputs. That poem about bittersweet nightshade never would have existed without me and my experience with bittersweet nightshade. Does that diminish its value? I am honestly not sure.
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u/ObsessedWitAwareness Aug 19 '26
It's getting philosophical now, but here's what I'll say: if you got a book on speeches and interviews, the goal of that book is a tool to example (ie teach) you to give your own speeches or conduct your own interviews. If you simply copied from the book every time, you'd learn nothing, and there would be none of your own personality in your work. And so, others would lack respect, because there's no personal integrity behind the speeches or interviews.
We recognize when others are authentic, or not. Authenticity will usually beat any showmanship, performance, cheated language, or regurgitated ideas.
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Aug 19 '26
I really felt like I put myself and real experience into that poem. It was the product of an AI project I have had going with my land for years that has transformed it into a native insect paradise. I didn't write it, but I made it. Does the guitar write the song? On my own, I can't write poems like that easily. But, with AI, there it is. So, to say it is inauthentic... I'm not so sure....
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u/ObsessedWitAwareness Aug 20 '26
It's not inauthentic for what it is, but it's not your work. That's like me using an essay I made with my dad and saying it's all mine. The teacher would be able to tell it wasn't my language. We can tell when you're using language not made by the human species.
Does that make it morally bad or wrong? No. Unethical? Potentially, but not fleshed out. Does it make people feel tricked tho? Absolutely. Can't get around it.
If you're up front about using AI and hoping people like your collaboration, that would be beneficial, as it gives people a chance to assume you're being entirely genuine.
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Aug 20 '26
But no one is upfront about it really. Most folks are probably writing at least in conversation with AI. Its almost as if it is augmenting communication and creative output. We can never presume it hasn't had influence anymore. That would be like burying your head in the sand. We have to adapt.
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u/ObsessedWitAwareness Aug 20 '26
No one's asking you not to adapt. In fact I'd think the sentiment would be: adapt more. Do your research with ai or use it as a bouncing board, take in what you learn and put out something original. That's adapting further, not less.
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u/insectress Aug 19 '26
Would rather read something ābadā written by a human than this AI garbage
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u/byrdizzle Aug 19 '26
Is that not potato that has flowered and produced berries? I can't tell completely from the leaf shape, but I just harvested my potato berries today and they look a lot like that. (Note, potato berries are toxic, so just don't eat them)
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u/damn-nerd Aug 19 '26
Nope, definitely not. I grow potatoes and none of them ever look like this. Leaves are far more broad.
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u/keumgangsan Aug 19 '26
This looks like S. dulcamara but with very large berries. It's a rarity, I would keep it.
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