The devil’s snare

August 3rd

No, not the one from Harry Potter. The real plant self-seeded itself right by the well in my garden. I noticed it today, it had a curious thorny bud. I had no clue what it was, so I took a photo and did a search on it. It came with exact results and the name — datura stramonium. It has many other folk names as well — thorn apple, jimsonweed (jimson weed), devil’s snare, or devil’s trumpet. From the photos on the internet, it looked like it will have a beautiful flower, so I decided to let it grow and spare it mowing or weeding. Later on, when I spoke about it with my mom, she told me to quickly read a little more about it and not touch it without gloves under any circumstances. Or even better, just put on the gloves and get rid of it right away. Apparently, this plant as a whole specimen (leaves, stem, bud, flower and seeds) is poisonous, narcotic and hallucinogenic. It is extremely toxic in the whole of its being, and as I found out just now, it is in our times commonly used by teens to get high. A dangerous high, since even a few seeds can bring brain damage and cardiac arrest. It is also used for medicinal purposes and for indigenous religious practices (mostly among Native Americans) but in dilettante's hands, it can kill or damage the body beyond repair.

With my curiosity growing, I went outside to look at it again. And in just a few hours since I took the photo above, it flowered!

It looks very nice and so innocent. If it wasn’t for my mom knowing about it, I wouldn’t know about its hidden danger. I mean, when I looked it up and found its name and photos, I could read further about it and learn about it for myself. But I didn’t, I just concentrated on the nice photos and interesting names for it. I concentrated on the appearance and the coolness of its name — not on the substance of knowing what it really is. And that is a common occurrence with me, just a touch of an idea about something usually gives me what I think is enough to know about it. I am aware this is not the optimal way of furthering my knowledge, but on the other hand — there are simply too many things that interest me to read in-depth about them all. But I can make an effort to at least know what exactly grows in my garden.