Mystery plant on the gravel, June 2012…
One plant has haunted me all summer. I had never seen it before, or at least never noticed it, but now it was springing up everywhere.
I first saw it on the gravel bed in the “civilised” part of my wooded garden and I thought it was a self-seeded tomato or potato, or some wild relative in the Solanum or (poisonous) nightshade family. But as usual I decided to wait and see what developed.
In July it bloomed, with tiny white flowers that seemed to have four rounded petals.
The mystery plant in flower in July…
Another bid to capture the tiny flowers in July…
Clearly, then, by the shape of the flowers, it wasn’t a member of the potato/tomato family. Meanwhile I had also found the plant in the shady, wooded part of the garden. It was probably spread from there to the gravel on someone’s gardening boot.
Mystery flowers on gravel in August…
The flowers in August, with a snail-silvered nasturtium leaf in the background…
I picked off a stem and tried again to take a picture of the flowers…
Still trying to work out the flowers…
In August we had short holidays in Dorset and West Wales and I saw more of the plant…
The mystery plant under a tree at Upton House, Poole, Dorset…
The plant in the garden of Llanerchaeron, a National Trust property near Aberystwyth, Ceredigion…
The plant on wet rocks at Devil’s Bridge, also near Aberystwyth…
Anyway, when we returned from our travels I finally identified the plant – I expect many of you already know. It is Circaea lutetiana or enchanter’s nightshade – what a great name!
So I had been close in my first identification. It is a nightshade, but oddly no relation to the Solanum family of nightshades which includes eggplant (aubergine) as well as potato and tomato. Strange that three such edible plants come from such a lethal family. I think I read somewhere that when the potato was first taken to France from the New World people were poisoned when they ate the fruits instead of the tubers, thinking they were like tomatoes. For that reason the vegetable took a while to become popular there.
Anyway the name Circaea comes from the island sorceress Circe, who turned the Argonauts into swine in the Odyssey. Here is my favourite image of Circe, by my favourite Pre-Raphaelite painter, Edward Burne-Jones…
The Wine of Circe by Edward Burne-Jones…
This is one of the Victorian paintings I grew up with through images in Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedia. Although those pictures were not in colour but in sepia, or monochrome green or blue. I always thought Circe was leaning over like that because the ceiling was too low in her hut, but now I see she is bent double because she is supposed to be looking furtive or wicked as she poisons the wine for her Argonaut visitors (you can see the sails through the window).
The other part of the plant’s name, lutetiana, comes from Lutetia, the Latin name for Paris, which was (Wikipedia tells me) once known as the “Witch City”.
Despite all that, enchanter’s nightshade is not very poisonous. It does contain a lot of tannin, which is an astringent. Maybe that’s why it has been used in the past to treat wounds? The word astringent comes from the Latin adstringere, literally “to bind fast”, and astringents tighten body tissue (imagine slapping on aftershave).
Enchanter’s nightshade is a member of the Onagraceae family. It is the same group as the evening primrose (Oenothera) and willowherb (Epilobium) and I can see the resemblance now, in the four-petalled flowers.
Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis) in North Carolina, pictured by Jane Shelby Richardson
My own picture of rose bay willowherb (Epilobium angustifolium) on Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire – although it is as common on city building sites and railway sidings as in the countryside. In North America it is called fireweed…
Surprisingly it is also the same family as Fuchsias, where the brightly-coloured sepals also look like petals, disguising the simple four-petal design. I had never noticed that before.
A Fuchsia in my garden – the four sepals are pink and the four petals purple…
Circaea lutetiana is, according to Wikipedia, native to Europe, Middle Asia and Siberia. Another source says it’s also native to the eastern states of the USA. Perhaps that’s the subspecies Circaea lutetiana canadensis? I don’t know.
One thing is clear, the plant likes shady, wet woodland, particularly on nitrogen-containing clay. It has been a very wet summer in the UK, which has perhaps encouraged the plant to spread and flourish this year…
The Squirrelbasket 
Pat..Glad you discovered the mystery. I know how frustrated I get sometimes when no one can identify a plant ( even the nursery) I had a situation regarding a plant that my G-son dug near our pond and replanted, it was beautiful with a plume in the center that was green/yellow/red..know one could identify/internet no help..then one day I mentioned it to a Seminole Indian who I met..turns out it was the plant that years ago brooms were made from..no longer used..The plant has multiplied and I now have 1/4 acre in my ” Wildflower Weed Garden”.
I think sometimes the ” weeds” are more interesting as they are true ” survivors”.
Excellent! And you may have noticed that this time I didn’t call my mystery wild-plant a “weed”…
Best wishes 🙂
is it called bakers broom? because I have lots near were I live.
I haven’t heard it called that, but maybe someone else knows it by that name?
Thank you for stopping by to comment.
Best wishes 🙂
Pat, this is an incredible coincidence. I went through same process in July ago – a really common plant in everyone’s (unweeded) garden, churchyards etc, and I couldn’t work out what itw as., though clearly similar to nightshade family.
I then sent a picture to SEWBReC, our local bidiversirty record centre, and they kindly told me what it was. (I then found that the illustration in my wild flower guide wasn’t that good, hence why missed).
I was so excited by the name, I told several people over the next few days!
And I had earmarked it as a possible subject for the blog I keep meaning to start – but as that seems to stay a constant distance away, i’m happy you have done the job for me, and much better than I would have done, I wouldn’t have thought of the artistic connections etc.
I hope you find a new subject for your blog launch soon – although there are probably no new subjects, just different ways of writing about them!
I do still have one mystery plant I can’t identify from my wildflower books – perhaps you know it? Two years in a row I have snapped it, but not well enough to identify the shape of the flowers and the family it comes from. This is it: last year and this year…
Any ideas?
Best wishes 🙂
Sorry, Pat – it looks familiar but I am such a complete novice at plants, just learning one or two at a time. As previously mentioned, either iSpot or SEWBReC will probably id it for you. It will help if you state habitat, height, whether leaves or stalk hairy and perhaps a photo that shows the flower shape more clearly.
If I had a better picture of the flowers I could probably ID it myself, as at least I would recognise the family and could look more closely in my British flora book. I only ever see it in fields by the sea in West Wales – maybe NEXT time I’ll remember to do a close-up.
Thanks anyway.
Best wishes 🙂
That changes everything! I thought you meant it was another plant in your garden, like the Enchanters Nightshade, to identify. I thought it looked like Sea Lavendar (Limonium) but obviously that couldn’t be in your garden as a wild plant (plenty of adapted cultivars) available.
But on the West Wales Coast… that’s a different matter!
See http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/sea-lavender
http://www.cheshire-biodiversity.org.uk/action-plans/listing.php?id=65
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limonium
What do you think?
Thanks for trying, but I’m afraid it’s not that. The unidentified plant is more robust and pinker and the shape of the flowerhead is different.
However, as I write this reply, I have just spent another half-hour searching again online, using this website http://wildflowerfinder.org.uk/ and this one http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/red-bartsia.
And I think it is red bartsia, Odontites verna.
My first thought, from the flowers, had been that it belonged to the family Scrophulariaceae, but I didn’t recognise it from the picture in my Concise British Flora in colour, where it looks a bit thinner…
What do you think?
Such an interesting post. Not being a gardener myself Pat I think I would have taken it for just a weed. But I will take note in future especially plants which may be poisnous.
Oh dear, as I think many have said before, a weed is just a (lovely, wild) plant in the wrong place!
But I do recall from an early age being told not to eat the berries of deadly nightshade and woody nightshade…
Best wishes 🙂
As well as enjoying your post Pat – you’ve helped me identify a plant that’s on the common (almost on my doorstep). The rose bay willowherb. Thank you!
Happy to help! I love rose bay willow herb. It’s magnificent and I never tire of seeing it beside railway lines and on building sites.
Best wishes 🙂
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