Short Term Forecast - Greater Caldwell (North Carolina)

Hearts a’busting, also known as Strawberry bush, is known scientifically as Euonymus americanus. This deciduous shrub is fairly unremarkable….until fall when its warty scarlet seed capsules open to reveal raspberry-orange berries. Hearts a’busting grows 4-6 ft. in height and 3-4 ft. in width and requires partial shade, tolerating moist soil. It is a member of the Staff Tree family. I understand the common name arose from the perceived resemblance of fruit to a heart so filled with love that it couldn’t hold it in. Oh, how sweet.

The attached photo(s) were taken Sunday, September 28, in the Pisgah National Forest at about the 1500 ft. level.

I have a beautiful Angel’s Trumpet blooming in my landscaping. I planted it in the spring and it must have grown 1 ˝ ft. this summer and has produced a multitude of 12-15” long light coral blooms. Now I thought it was a Datura but that’s pretty much it. Upon further research I’ve learned Datura stramonium is the wild variety and is known as Jimsonweed, Downy Thornapple, Devil’s Trumpet, Angel’s Trumpet, Jamestown weed, Mad Apple, Stink Weed, Locoweed and Tolguacha, to name a few common names. Jimsonweed is an annual herb that grows up to 5 ft. tall. It has a pale green stem with spreading branches. The leaves have coarsely serrated edges and are 3-8 inches long. My domesticated version which botanically is called Brugmansia, named for Sebald Justin Brugmans, a Natural History professor in Holland, evidently grows to about the same height but the leaves are very large, probably 12” or more in length, 6-8” in width, and reminds me of tobacco leaves. Brugmansia is not an herb, like Datura, but a shrub. It is a member of the Nightshade family and like Datura has been used as a hallucinogenic drug.

Jimsonweed flowers are white or purple with a 5-pointed corolla up to four inches long and set on short stalks in the axils of branches. Jimsonweed is a common weed of worldwide distribution and grows in cultivated fields, overgrazed pastures, barnyards and waste land preferring rich soils. Jimsonweed has toxic properties in all its parts—leaves, seeds, stems—everything—fresh or dried--and should be destroyed when found growing in the wild.

In small quantities, Jimsonweed can have medicinal or hallucinogenic properties, but poisoning readily occurs because of misuse. Ingestion of Jimsonweed, cooked as part of a salad, caused the mass poisoning of soldiers in Jamestown, Virginia in 1676. The toxic chemicals in Jimsonweed are the belladonna alkaloids atropine and scopolamine. I understand human poisoning occurs more frequently than livestock poisoning which makes Jimsonweed unusual among most poisonous plants.