Belladonna black

Belladonna, also known as Atropa belladonna, is a poisonous plant that belongs to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Its distribution area includes Scandinavia, Western and Southern Europe, the Balkans, Asia Minor, North Africa and Iran. Flowering time is June/July, fruit ripening in September. Belladonna grows up to 1.5 m high, the fruits are cherry-sized black, strongly shiny, sweet-tasting berries. For children already 3 to 4 berries are deadly.

Phytotherapeutically, the dried leaves are used, also the dried leaves with flowering and occasionally fruiting branch tips ( belladonna leaves - Belladonnae folium).

The black belladonna is a perennial plant that grows to a height of between 50 cm and 150 cm.
The plant has a brown taproot that reaches far into the ground. The mostly reddish stem grows upright and has fine hairs. The shoots of the branches close with a flower below which there is a bracts.
The branches are also covered with short hairs. In summer, the belladonna bears green flower buds, brownish-purple flowers, green unripe berries and black berries side by side.

Atropa belladonna is the parent plant of Belladonnae folium or radix, the dried leaves with and without flowers and the roots of the plant.

The generic name Atropa originates from Greek mythology. The Greek goddess Atropos belongs to the three goddesses of fate and is the one who symbolically cuts the thread of life.

1. https://arzneipflanzenlexikon.info/tollkirsche.php
2. https://plants.fnr.de/industrialplants/medicinalplants/plants-database