Bittersweet Nightshade - Invasive Yet Beautiful

I went out for a quick walk before the rain started in again. I decided to take a few new turns and found a beautiful berry plant called Solanum dulcamara: or Bittersweet nightshade.

It is an invasive plant found around Oregon, and it has poisonous berries and stinky bark. It has a toxin called solanine; it's leaves and unripe berries are even more poisonous than the deceivingly delicious-looking red berries. But it is beautiful, the birds love it, and you just can't go wrong with purple leaves against those shiny red berries!!

Along my walk I ran into a delightful woman who asked me if I was a professional Photographer.....you know, I had a good laugh over that. But she wanted to get some professional instruction on how to better use her Nikon camera, so I suggested a few places in town which give classes, and then told her all about Blipfoto....she is Irish, and I told her there are lots of Irish and English folks on blip....so I hope she joins and gets the bug like the rest of us!!

To see a few of my other photos from my walk (a couple cute squirrel photos too!), visit my FLICKR PAGE!