CAN YOU TELL THESE APART?
One of these is a snack. The other stops your heart
blueberries
Vaccinium spp.
crown-shaped indent on berry bottom, toothed leaves
deadly nightshade
Atropa belladonna
single berries in leaf axils, bell-shaped flowers, smooth shiny berry
How to tell them apart
Crown on bottom = blueberry. Single shiny berry in leaf crook = nightshade.
You can tell them apart right now. The real question is whether you'll still know in three weeks — BloomEDU quizzes you on this pair until the name sticks.
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Common questions
Can you eat wild blueberries you find on a hike?
Yes, if it is genuinely a blueberry — and that takes three checks together. The berries grow in small clusters on a woody shrub, each berry has a five-pointed crown on its blossom end, and the flesh inside is pale green rather than inky purple. A shiny black berry hanging alone in the crook of a leaf is not a blueberry. If any one of the three does not check out, do not eat it.
What does a deadly nightshade berry look like?
A single glossy black berry about the size of a cherry, sitting alone where a leaf meets the stem, backed by a green five-pointed star of sepals that flares out behind it. Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) never has the crown-shaped indent that blueberries have, and its berries do not grow in clusters.
What happens if you eat deadly nightshade?
Atropa belladonna carries tropane alkaloids — atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine. Symptoms arrive within a couple of hours: widely dilated pupils, dry mouth, flushed skin, a racing heart, confusion, and hallucinations, with seizures at higher doses. The berries taste sweet, which is why children eat them. Treat any suspected ingestion as an emergency and call Poison Control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) or emergency services right away, without waiting for symptoms.
Is the nightshade in my backyard deadly nightshade?
Usually not. True deadly nightshade is uncommon in North America. The plants most people call nightshade are black nightshade (Solanum species, small dull berries in drooping clusters) and bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara, a vine with red egg-shaped berries). Neither one is belladonna, and neither one is a blueberry — do not eat any of them.