{"id":383,"date":"2023-03-03T11:07:35","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T11:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/?p=383"},"modified":"2023-03-03T11:15:39","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T11:15:39","slug":"deadly-nightshade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/deadly-nightshade\/","title":{"rendered":"Deadly nightshade"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bushy perennial, 1-1.5 m (3-5 ft.) tall, it has ovate, dull-green leaves, bearing single, purple-brown, bell-shaped flowers in the axils in summer, followed by shiny black berries.<\/p>\n

History and traditions<\/h3>\n

In 16th-century Venice this plant was known as herba bella donna, and used to dilate the pupils of their eyes by women who sought to beautify themselves. Its potential to cause fatalities was well understood at the time, the apothecaries\u2019 name for it being solatrum mortale, which translates as \u201cdeadly nightshade\u201d. Writing at the end of the 16th<\/sup> century, Gerard pontificates on its dangers, advising that a plant \u201cso furious and deadly\u201d should be banished from \u201cyour gardens\u201d.<\/p>\n

Growth<\/h3>\n

Grown as a commercial crop (for the pharmaceutical industry) in well-drained, moist soil and full sun warm, dry conditions increase the alkaloid content.<\/p>\n

Uses<\/h3>\n

Medicinal<\/h4>\n

It contains the alkaloid, atropine, which dilates the pupils of the eye and gives the plant its toxic, sedative properties. A constituent of pharmaceutical drugs, used as premedication before surgery and in eye drops for ophthalmic treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bushy perennial, 1-1.5 m (3-5 ft.) tall, it has ovate, dull-green leaves, bearing single, purple-brown, bell-shaped flowers in the axils in summer, followed by shiny black berries. History and traditions In 16th-century Venice this plant was known as herba bella donna, and used to dilate the pupils of their eyes by women who sought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,111,107,102,115,97,138,105,110,98,127,122,103,114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-z","category-alkaline-soil","category-chalky-soil","category-clay-soil","category-fall","category-full","category-herbaceous-perennial","category-loamy-soil","category-neutral-soil","category-partial","category-perennial","category-purple","category-sandy-soil","category-summer"],"meta_box":{"botanical-name":"Atropa belladonna","common-names":"Deadly nightshade, Belladonna, Banewort, Black cherry, Devil's berries, Dwale, Dwayberries, Great morel, Naughty's man cherry, Sleeping powders, Atropa belladonna, Devil's cherries, Devil's herb","family":"Solanaceae","flower_bloom_time":[{"term_id":115,"name":"Fall","slug":"fall","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":115,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":46,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":114,"name":"Summer","slug":"summer","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":114,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":112,"count":163,"filter":"raw"}],"flower_color":[{"term_id":122,"name":"Purple","slug":"purple","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":122,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":116,"count":60,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_life_cycle":[{"term_id":127,"name":"Perennial","slug":"perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":127,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":84,"count":133,"filter":"raw"}],"plant_types":[{"term_id":138,"name":"Herbaceous Perennial","slug":"herbaceous-perennial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":138,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":88,"count":56,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_ph":[{"term_id":111,"name":"Alkaline Soil","slug":"alkaline-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":111,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":117,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":110,"name":"Neutral Soil","slug":"neutral-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":110,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":108,"count":158,"filter":"raw"}],"soil_type":[{"term_id":107,"name":"Chalky Soil","slug":"chalky-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":107,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":31,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":102,"name":"Clay Soil","slug":"clay-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":102,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":108,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":105,"name":"Loamy Soil","slug":"loamy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":105,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":179,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":103,"name":"Sandy Soil","slug":"sandy-soil","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":103,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":101,"count":147,"filter":"raw"}],"sun_exposure":[{"term_id":97,"name":"Full","slug":"full","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":97,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":197,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":98,"name":"Partial","slug":"partial","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":98,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":96,"count":126,"filter":"raw"}],"usda_hardiness_zones":"Zone: 6 - 9","region_or_country_of_origin":"Southern Europe to Asia","plant_mature_size":"

Height<\/strong>: 1-1.5 m (3-5 ft.)<\/p>\n"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383\/revisions\/385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeflowerbulbs.com\/plants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}