Introduced. Annual or biennial. Propagates by seeds. Time of bloom: June to September. Seed-time: July to October,

Fig. 259. - Apple of Peru (Nicandra Physalodes). X 1/6.

Range: Nova Scotia and Eastern Quebec to Ontario, New York, and Michigan; also in Idaho and on the Pacific Coast. Locally about Atlantic seaports and in Iowa, Utah, and Montana.

Habitat: Waste places. Prefers rich soil.

A coarse, ill-scented, and very dangerous weed, poisonous in every part. Cattle avoid it because of its harsh texture and evil odor, but poultry die from eating its ripe seeds and hogs are killed by eating its fleshy roots.

Stem stout, one to three feet in height, clothed with viscid hairs. Leaves dark green, three to six or more inches long, with irregular pointed lobes, wavy edges, and viscid-hairy midribs; they are alternate, the upper ones sessile and clasping, but the lower ones petioled and drooping on the ground. Flowers in a short, onesided cluster at the top of the plant and solitary in the leaf angles; they are funnel-shaped, somewhat unequally five-lobed, nearly two inches broad, the corolla greenish yellow with throat and lobes netted with purple veins; stamens five, exserted and declined; calyx urn-shaped, with five pointed lobes and five ribs; it enlarges to enclose the oblong capsule, which is about a half-inch long, two-celled and opens transversely around the top, the latter falling off like a lid, spilling the numerous seeds. These are kidney-shaped, brown, with a strongly netted surface. (Fig. 260.)

Means Of Control

Grub out and destroy the plants as soon as discovered, allowing no seed to mature.

Fig. 260. - Black Henbane (Hyoscy-amus niger). X 1/6.