Herbs in The Midnight Garden of Good and Evil

The Poison Herbs: From top: Mandrake, Mandrake small, Foxglove,Belladonna, Arium, St. John's wort, Belladonna, Foxglove, Arium,Thorn Apple, Thorn apple botanical drawing, Wormwood label, Wormwood.



Bewitch and Beware the Whole Year Through!

The setting for Behrendt’s novel is Savannah, with noted squares and graveyards; but the gardens are pictured as dark, very dark. Could these toxic herb have been part of the eerie settings?  All three outlined below live in Georgia---and New Jersey--- It might have been.

The Thorn apple (Datura stramonium)  is also known as Moonflower and  Locoweed. It is part of the Poison Family---lower left hand side. It is both poisonous and medically useful, as are its relatives in the nightshade family, Belladonna (Altropa belladonna) and Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum).

If you handle the Thorn apple’s seed pods carelessly, you will get pricked painfully. But when the pod opens, the seeds do their dastardly work. Toxic reactions are due to alkaloids that cause vision distortion, hallucinations, and can be fatal. Such is true with Belladonna and Mandrake as well. These are not plants to display in a garden club show and tell! Many of the parts of the plants are toxic; check your local poison plant directory.

The medicinal uses of these nightshade members are surprising: Datura was formerly an asthmatic medication, Belladonna is an eye medication, and Mandrake was used for stomach ills. 

Cornell notes their debilitating effect on livestock, USDA lists them as ‘noxious plants’; and Native Americans from long ago used them as hallucinogenic aids for ceremonies. 

You will find an exhibit in the Cloisters herb gardens in their "Magical Herb" section. There are many others which could have been part of the same Garden, such as Foxglove and Mayapple---but this will wait till another Halloween.

A closer view of the Thorn apple---see the prickly pods?


Sources (some) 
U. Michigan: Native American Medical Plants Database 
FDA: Poisonous Plants Database
 A Modern Herbal 
Cornell University’s Ag Extension publications 
USDA .