Deadly Nightshade (Belladonna): Toxicity, Appearance, and Removal

Deadly Nightshade Toxicity

All parts of belladonna—leaves, flowers, fruits, and roots—are highly toxic to humans and domesticated animals if consumed. The sweet, purplish-black berries attract children and are the greatest risk.

Deadly nightshade affects the nervous system, causing hallucinations, and can be fatal.

Birds and other wildlife seem immune to its effects. For example, the honeybees that make honey with belladonna nectar that is toxic for human consumption. The toxic ingredients in belladonna include atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine.

What Does Deadly Nightshade Look Like?

• Size: Belladonna is a tall, bushy, upright perennial of the nightshade family that returns yearly. It grows 3 to 4 feet high and wide.
• Leaves: Dark green leaves are oval and unevenly sized, ranging from 3 to 10 inches long; leaves on the lower plant are solitary; on the upper plant, they grow in pairs.
• Flowers: Flowers are mildly scented, dull purple or lavender with a green tinge, and are distinctly bell-shaped, blooming from June through September; flowers are located in the leaf axils, the angle between the leaf and the upper part of the stem.
• Fruit: The fruit, often called the devil’s cherry, ripens between late August and September and is black and shiny like a cherry. The berries are not evenly sized and can reach about 34 of an inch in size. Due to their slight resemblance with wild edible berries, the purplish-black, sweet-tasting fruit of belladonna poses a particular risk of being ingested.

Where Is Deadly Nightshade Found?

Belladonna is native to Eurasia from England throughout central and southern Europe, and North Africa to Iran. Belladonna has been found in several states in the United States, including New York, Michigan, California, Oregon, and Washington.

It often grows in wastelands and areas with disturbed soil, such as dumps, quarries, and roadsides.

How to Remove Deadly Nightshade

If you have positively identified belladonna in your yard, take all the necessary precautions to avoid skin contact. Wear long sleeves, long pants, boots, and gloves. If the plant is tall and there is the slightest risk that your face will have contact with the plant, also wear goggles or a full-face respirator.

1. Dig out the plant with all its roots. Be thorough because belladonna regrows from any roots left in the soil.
2. Safely dispose of the entire plant, including its roots, in the trash.
3. Disinfect the tools you have been using for removing the plant—shovel, pruners—with a chlorine bleach solution (1 cup chlorine bleach per 1-gallon water). When cleaning the tools, wear waterproof gloves and dispose of the solution properly.
4. Wash your work clothes immediately and separately from other clothing.

If belladonna starts to regrow from residual roots, the most efficient chemical to use is a non-selective herbicide such as glyphosate. Make sure to apply the herbicide when the shoots are still tiny to minimize the use of herbicide and kill the plant before it can spread again.

How to Prevent Belladonna From Spreading

Belladonna spreads rapidly like a weed. The plant dies back during the winter and regrows in the spring from its thick, fleshy roots. Birds that eat the seeds without ill effects spread the plant to other locations in their droppings.

Deadly Nightshade vs. Twinberry Honeysuckle

Twinberry honeysuckle (Lonicera involucrata) is often confused for belladonna because the blackened berries from this shrub look very similar. However, as its common name suggests, twinberry honeysuckle produces a pair of two berries together.

Belladonna produces single berries. Also, the berries of the honeysuckle variety are smaller, and it has red leaves from the spot where the berries emerge.

Twinberry honeysuckle flowers look similar to belladonna’s but are yellow—another dead giveaway that the plant is not belladonna—which has dark purple blooms.