Yesterday, our internal DEA embarked on a campaign to hunt down various stashes at Chartwell, to eradicate the scourge once and for all.
(Above): After about an hour of checking every nook and cranny, we ended up with this fairly large pile of Nightshade. It would be foolhardy to dump this on the composting heap, so we decided to snip the plants into small manageable lengths and dispose of them the the domestic garbage wheelie bin.
According to Te Ara (Encyclopaedia of NZ), Black Nightshade and related species are probably responsible for more plant-poisoning admissions to hospital than any other plant in New Zealand. The unripe green berries of these common weeds are poisonous.
Many admissions are for suspected poisoning by Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna), but this plant is very uncommon in New Zealand, and the cause is usually Black Nightshade (Solanum nigrum). This very common weed is often mistakenly called Deadly Nightshade, although it is much less toxic.
One might think that the berries are the nasty part of the plants, but apparently the most toxic is the roots, followed by the stems, then the leaves, and then only the berries.
Although apparently dogs can only have adverse effects if the plants are intentionally fed to them, we thought it best to eradicate all plants as far as possible, to be on the safe side.
(Above): A section of a plant showing green and black berries.
(Above): Six plastic bags represent the results of our DEA raid stand ready for dumping with the domestic garbage.
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