Horse Nettle

This is Carolina Horse-nettleof the night shade family.  Other common names include radical weed, sand brier or briar, bull nettle, tread-softly, Solanum mammosum ("apple of Sodom"), devil's tomato and wild tomato.  We called them sticker weeds.  They’d reach out and grab you.  They spread mainly through being in the hay.  The cows ate the hay and seeds in their manure spread the nettle.  The manure also fertilized the nettle so in the barn lots it would be huge.  It’s poisonous but there’s not enough in the hay to hurt the hurt the cows.  

Nightshades are a worldwide family that contains many plants with highly toxic fruits; in fact, the Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is one of the few nightshades that is edible. 

Carolina Horse-nettle is native to the southern Piedmont; shipments of hay and other agricultural products have helped extend horse-nettle's range into farmland of the northeastern and northcentral U.S., where it has caused poisoning in livestock. In spring and summer, its large-lobed leaves and one-inch purple or white flowers with yellow stamens can be seen in weedy areas and disturbed meadows, but it is most easily found when its drooping clusters of golden berries sparkle in the winter sun.  As in all noxious nightshades, the fruits of Carolina Horse-nettle contain solanine glycoalkaloids that cause severe gastrointestinal distress in humans. There also may be toxic levels of nitrates, and the green plant can cause dermatitis, especially if one's skin is scratched by its spines; this alone should be enough information to keep a knowledgeable person from eating or touching the plant.

As might be expected of a highly toxic plant, dilute concentrations of Carolina Horse-nettle have been used for medicinal purposes as a treatment for epilepsy, kidney problems, internal worms, poison ivy rash, and dog mange, and--perhaps surprisingly--as an aphrodisiac.