Country diary: the devil's cherries are tantalisingly bright

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: The fruits of black bryony are jewel-like in the rain - but don't even think of eating themA necklace of black bryony berries hangs from the barbed wire like crime scene evidence. Black bryony, the common name of Tamus communis, comes from the Latin bryonia nigra or vitis nigra, but the fruits of the black vine are anything but black. They are currants the colour of autumn - pumpkins, oak leaves, honey fungus, robin redbreasts; they are jewel-like in this morning's rain; they are ancient medicine and poisonous.Culpepper the herbalist said "briony" were "furiously martial plants", imbued with the warlike spirit of orange twinkling Mars in the night sky; the root was used to "purge the belly with great violence" but, because it needed "an abler hand to correct it than most county people have", it was better not taken internally but used on the skin to cure bruises, broken bones and leprosy. Continue reading...