Berries to treat the ‘gravel’

Black bryony is a twisting climber, a climbing hedgerow and woodland edge plant which flowers between around May and August.

Later on, into the autumn, it produces shiny, red berries seen in autumn and often found even into early winter. This is our only native member of the mostly tropical, edible ‘yam’ family and shoots from a large, swollen, underground tuber.

Not edible however, black bryony is in fact highly poisonous. We do have another ‘bryony’, the ‘white bryony’ but despite its name, and (very) superficial resemblance, the two are not related.

White bryony, which is our only native member of the cucumber family, is much less common in northern areas and is found mostly in southern and eastern regions. It is also highly toxic and was formerly harvested to be passed off by herbal medical practitioners as medicinal ‘mandrake’ used for quack medicine and in medieval times as a primitive and unreliable anaesthetic.

Unfortunate patients might wake up mid-operation! However, returning to the black bryony I photographed these gloriously blood-red berries like miniature bunches of red grapes in an overgrown tangle of an old hedgerow along a steep footpath.

● Prof Rotherham, a researcher, writer and broadcaster on wildlife and environmental issues, is contactable on ianonthewildside@ ukeconet.org