Hyoscyamus niger L.

Henbane, black henbane, stinking nightshade

Henbane is native to Europe and Siberia, but naturalized in Great Britain, Ireland, and North America. For as long as people have been classi­fying plants, “-banes” have designated poisonous plants, or those with magical or psychotropic powers.

Plants: Foul-smelling, sticky plants are up to 3′ (1 m) tall.

Leaves: Lanceolate to ovate, 1¾–12 ⨉ ¾–6″ (5–30 ⨉ 2–15 cm), mostly sessile, with bases that clasp the stem or petiole. Each leaf has coarse teeth or deep lobes.

Flowers: Tubular, five-parted, with petals fused into a cup shape. Flowers are ⅞–1¾″ (2.5–4.5 cm) in size, pale yellow to greenish yellow, with a network of darker veins, and centers are purple. They appear from June to August.

Fruits: Capsules are ovoid-rounded, and ½ ⨉ ⅜″ (1.5 ⨉ 1.2 cm). Seeds are yellow-brown, disc-shaped, and 1/32″ (1 mm) in diameter.

Habitats: Waste places, roadsides, or fields, at elevations below 1.8 mi (2.9 km).

Edibility: Poisonous Black henbane is excep­tionally poisonous, as described below. Like many poisons, it also has medicinal properties when used carefully.

Medical: As far back as 4000 B.C., henbane has been variously used as a hallucinogenic, to induce a feeling of flying, as a conjurer of souls and demons, and as a cross between a deleriant and an aphrodisiac. Symptioms include loss of mus­cular control, dilation of the pupils, heart palpi­tation, hallucinations, delirium (“madness”); and in large doses, coma, and death. In smaller doses it has served as an analgesic, sedative, and narcotic. Henbane contains hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and other tropane alkaloids. Scopalomine patches are used today to ameliorate seasickness. Hyoscy­amine is still used as an antispasmodic and to treat stomach and intestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, cramps, and Parkinson’s disease.

Online References:

Hyoscyamus niger description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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