Toxic Plants

White bryony flower In this series we are looking at plants which were used as anaesthetics in ancient Roman and medieval times and in wartime Britain.    In my last three posts in March, June and September, I described the progress of several such plants including henbane, jimsonweed/thornapple, white bryony/English mandrake, mediterranean/european mandrake, opium poppy, hemlock/poison hemlock, monkshood/wolfsbane and deadly nightshade.    It’s now December, the garden is dormant so let’s take a look at how one might use these plants in practice. First the usual warning: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.   These plants can be highly toxic or even fatal.   The purpose of this series is to imagine what we might have to do if we were thrown into some national emergency, the usual supply lines for the import of pharmaceuticals broke down, and we had to make do with whatever was at hand – just like people did in wartime Britain.   These are not recreational drugs and nobody should attempt to use the