My friend Colin came to tell me he had found 300 plants, which in his words smelt very strong & poisonous bordering a carrot field. along at Bawdsey near Woodbridge I said they probably belong to the genus Solanum that is a member of the potato family & identified them as either Apple of Peru or more likely Thorn Apple. I told him I would appreciate a sample in order to correctly identify it.
The sample duly arrived in a bucket along with one plant in fruit. The fruit looked for all the world like a small conker, which confirmed my identification as a Thorn Apple. It is an uncommon alien from many temperate & sub-tropical parts of the Northern Hemisphere& seeds can remain dormant for many years however when they do emerge as plants they can grow in very large numbers. They are more abundant during very hot dry summers like we are experiencing this year. The flowers are large & trumpet like & usually white. In Colin’s specimen they were mauve.
I have seen then growing on allotments in Lowestoft but rarely elsewhere in Lowestoft itself. Most records in Suffolk come from sandy coastal sites as in this case.
I was grateful for this diversion from my back pain & disappointed I could not visit the site myself.
The sample duly arrived in a bucket along with one plant in fruit. The fruit looked for all the world like a small conker, which confirmed my identification as a Thorn Apple. It is an uncommon alien from many temperate & sub-tropical parts of the Northern Hemisphere& seeds can remain dormant for many years however when they do emerge as plants they can grow in very large numbers. They are more abundant during very hot dry summers like we are experiencing this year. The flowers are large & trumpet like & usually white. In Colin’s specimen they were mauve.
I have seen then growing on allotments in Lowestoft but rarely elsewhere in Lowestoft itself. Most records in Suffolk come from sandy coastal sites as in this case.
I was grateful for this diversion from my back pain & disappointed I could not visit the site myself.
