crankyNature's Bounty
The food we find in hedge and ditch
Is not to everybody's taste -
But still, it forms a treasure which
The Wise will hardly want to waste!
If okra you cannot afford
But mucilage be your delight,
The common mallow, much ignored,
Boils down to slime, so that's alright!
Or if the nectar of the vine
Is something that you've lately missed,
The daisy makes a kind of wine,
And that will also get you pissed.
Ah! Now the daisies drown your brain,
And mallow lubricates your guts,
On Nature's aid you call again!
(I'm sure I heard you cry out, "Nuts!")
So why's a Wimpy in my hand?
Because it's natural, right and good -
And this the Wise will understand,
'Cos I just found it in the wood!
Over here we have Deadly (which I've never seen); Enchanter's (which isn't even slightly related, and doesn't resemble one either); Woody or Bittersweet (very pretty, and less poisonous than Deadly); and Black. Black is a whole rather uniform-looking species complex with a global mess of cultivars, some actually bred and apparently safe for human consumption. The rest... Well, they don't usually kill healthy adults!
I met my first black nightshade in person just a couple of weeks ago: it looked rather like some large and perverted potato. Now some joker has drenched the whole plot it grew on with some very obnoxious chemical indeed, and it and all its friends are very sad. Pah!