Henbane

[mrs fish]

Is this Henbane ?

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by mrs fish

Is this Henbane ?

That certainly is henbane. Nice find.

[Steven Munday]

Hi Ian,

I was out this morning undertaking a bird survey for the BTO when I came across a number of flowering Henbane plants (well into double figures), a first for me. I took a photo, shown below.



I was searching the web for the occurrence of Henbane in Sussex when I came across this thread. These plants are located in Peacehaven, East Sussex just north of the Piddinghoe Sports Ground (north end of Piddinghoe Avenue) at TQ420014. They are situated to the south-east corner of a small disused reservoir, slightly up hill along the east side of a fence surrounding what I can only describe as a crater. Access is via a footpath to the west of the sports ground’s car park. The area is becoming overgrown so will require wading through vegetation.

I recently came across a large, flowering Deadly Nightshade on the 20th June to the east of Telscombe Village on a site locally known as the E-piece (about 2km north-west from the Henbane site) which forms a part of the Telscombe Tye. It’s located along a path through a wooded area towards the northern end at approximately TQ410031.



Hope this is useful.

Steve.

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Steven Munday

Hi Ian,

I was out this morning undertaking a bird survey for the BTO when I came across a number of flowering Henbane plants (well into double figures), a first for me. I took a photo, shown below.



I was searching the web for the occurrence of Henbane in Sussex when I came across this thread. These plants are located in Peacehaven, East Sussex just north of the Piddinghoe Sports Ground (north end of Piddinghoe Avenue) at TQ420014. They are situated to the south-east corner of a small disused reservoir, slightly up hill along the east side of a fence surrounding what I can only describe as a crater. Access is via a footpath to the west of the sports ground’s car park. The area is becoming overgrown so will require wading through vegetation.

I recently came across a large, flowering Deadly Nightshade on the 20th June to the east of Telscombe Village on a site locally known as the E-piece (about 2km north-west from the Henbane site) which forms a part of the Telscombe Tye. It’s located along a path through a wooded area towards the northern end at approximately TQ410031.



Hope this is useful.

Steve.

Thanks Steve for this information and location I shall record this down and should i get fed up and stressed at not finding it at more local sites i will maybe go and check this location out. I went to check a location just outside of Basingstoke the other day and got lost - i ended up doing 20 miles of cycling most of it round in circles

I am quite surprised that this is the first time you have encounter this plant because as far as i'm aware it is quite a common plant from Brighton -to- Rye and is regularly found in those areas (i have access to records for Sussex), in fact East Sussex has quite a healthy Henbane population and its were most of Sussex's records are from. A good location to see Henbane is just outside Seaford at a location i think is known as "High and Over" Anyway it has that massive horse carved into the side of the hill. This location has literally hundreds of plants scattered widely over the area and it also has an abundance of Deadly Nightshade. Here is a footage of one particular row of large henbane plants...

YouTube - Henbane

[wildherbalian85]

I located another spot (and its in Hampshire) were Henbane is growing. There is a very healthy colony of the stuff.

[Dan Salter]

What a great and interesting thread ! keep up the search

Im in Kent on the chalk areas and see a lot of Deadly Nightshade so i will keep my eyes open for henbane now...its an awesome looking flower too!

[wildherbalian85]

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

What a great and interesting thread ! keep up the search

Im in Kent on the chalk areas and see a lot of Deadly Nightshade so i will keep my eyes open for henbane now...its an awesome looking flower too!

Ahh it shouldn't be to hard to locate in kent especialy if your near to the coast

I agree with the flower, it is one of a wicked yet fantastic looking thing, with the deep veins running through it and the mixture of yellow, purple and black. I think Steven munday captured the flower well in his photo. I also like the way the flowers snake up as the plant grows.

The smell of the plant i find most intriguing.

[wildherbalian85]

Was looking through the many Henbane/ Belladonna pictures i have and for some reason (though not the best) this picture stuck out. I felt compelled to share it.

[Susie]

I've never seen Henbane before but I have seen plenty of deadly nightshade, both where I grew up in West London and locally.

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by Susie

I've never seen Henbane before but I have seen plenty of deadly nightshade, both where I grew up in West London and locally.

You must be a wicked witch?