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Henbane

 

 

You may have heard the name, but who has seen the herb?

 

Finding a henbane habitat may be difficult for a beginner, but we can see it on waste grounds as well as near shores. The stately plant can become several tens of centimetres tall  but does not quite reach a metre. Henbane is covered all over by small sticky glandular hairs. It smells, and rather disgustingly, like a rotting cadaver.

 

The greenish-yellow (sometimes even with a pink tinge), remarkably large bell-shaped flowers are patterned with dark violet veins. The flowers are arranged in a row on the stem, turning towards light. It cannot be mistaken for any other native plant, and can be seen flowering even in September.

  

Why such a name – Estonian koera pöörisrohi, “dog mad-grass”, and similar in many other languages? Cattle will not eat henbane but dogs are interested in any kind of foul-smelling things that even remotely remind of the smell of flesh, and also like chewing on plants. Henbane can turn ”man’s best friend” completely confused. Tales tell how an enemy’s dog was fed pieces of bread soaked in water from boiling henbane, and the dog had attacked his master in a foaming rage….

 

The fruits or seed capsules of henbane in autumn are quite unique: they open by a lid. There is no similar fruit in the Estonian flora.