Black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger)

Description: Toxic to most animals and humans but is known to have medicinal properties.

Habit: Annual or biennial, depending on location, that can reach a heigh of 3 feet.

Leaves: Pungent, alternate, simple, toothed, up to 8 inches long and 6 inches wide.

Stems: Upright, hairs between the nodes, growing up to 3 feet tall.

Flowers: Cream to green in color, five-lobed, 2 inches wide with purple throats.

Fruit and seeds: Small, black in color, dry and splits open when ripe. Capable of producing up to half a million seeds.

Habitat: Native to Africa, parts of Asia and Europe. Can be found in disturbed sites and coastal beaches.

Reproduction: By seed.

Credits: The information provided in this factsheet was gathered from the Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States and Go Botany/New England Wild Flower Society.

Individual species images that appear with a number in a black box are courtesy of the Bugwood.org network (http://www.invasive.org). Individual photo author credits may not be included due to the small display size of the images and subsequent difficulty of reading the provided text. All other images appear courtesy of Google (http://images.google.com).

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