the.com/nightshade
a plant family that gave us both deadly poison and your french fries.
means A plant from the Solanaceae family — a group that includes the poisonous belladonna and toxic black nightshade, as well as edible relatives like potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers.
from From Old English 'nihtscada,' literally 'night' plus 'shade' — a name reaching back through Germanic cousins (compare Old Saxon 'nahtscado'). The 'shade' likely points to the plant's love of shadowy places, or perhaps to its dark, sleep-bringing, sometimes deadly powers — fittingly sinister for a plant linked with poison and the night.
- family tree
- Includes potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant
- deadly cousin
- Belladonna's berries can kill with a handful
- beauty drops
- Renaissance women dilated pupils with belladonna eye drops
- shared toxin
- All produce solanine, why green potatoes hurt
- data weapon
- A modern tool poisons AI training images
deadly nightshade — atropa belladonna, plant native to north africa and western asia containing tropane alkaloids that killed medieval herbalists
belladonna alkaloids — scopolamine and atropine compounds used in 16th century italy as eye dilator for women, causing permanent blindness
tomato nightshade poisoning — solanine toxin in green tomatoes and potato sprouts caused deaths in 18th century europe before cooking methods discovered