White bryony (Bryonia dioica)

A couple of weeks ago I did a post on what can be done with conifers to add a bit of interest to them. Well in this post I'm going to show you something we have that likes to lurk around in the bottoms of conifers, or at least in the ones that we have anyway.

This is called White Byrony. Here in the UK its usually found as a climbing hedgerow plant and is actually the only native member of the cucumber family, although you wouldn't want to treat it in the same way as you would a cucumber as it is actually deadly poisonous. The roots being especially so. If left unchecked the plant will climb to half the height of these conifer trees through the summer and then die back for the winter. It was actually used in the past to remove wrinkles. You needed to pound the roots together with a plump fig and apply, presumably to the wrinkles but only if a walk of a quarter of a mile was taken immediately afterwards. They have some growing in the poison garden at Alnwick Castle. Click [HERE]. Apparently if consumed to great extent you die like Elvis - on the toilet, but not of a heart attack.

Below is a picture of a young plant, already the root would be the size of  small parsnip so it's always best to dig them up as soon as possible.

This is a picture of a more mature plant, and that is not a miniature hoe by it's side. On this plant the root alone is around four feet long. It's not often I can get them out complete like this one.