Scopolia carniolica seeds

 

Scopolia carniolica belongs to the family of the Solanaceae, the nightshades. S. carniolica is native to South East Europe. There it occurs mostly in the under storey of forests. Some individuals are growing in Austria. In 1800 one started to cultivate the plant. S. carniolica is also known as European scopolia or henbane bell. The henbane bell grows as a perennial, herbaceous plant and reaches a height of about 20 to 60 cm. The leaves of the European scopolia are ovate, simple with a clearly visible venation. The flowers of the henbane bell are, like one can already suggest from the name, bell shaped. The hang down and resemble the flowers of Atropa belladonna. The flower is reddish to brownish at the outer side and lighter inside. Sometimes the flower is almost yellow inside. The whole flower gets 3 cm long. The calyx covers only one third of the corolla. The flowers stand single at the shoot. The blooming time starts in April. The fruit is a capsule that contains the seeds. The strongly poisonous root was used in former times to strengthen the effect of beer. Partially it has a hallucinogen effect. The whole plant is extremely poisonous. The toxicity comes from the various alkaloids the plant contains. Like Atropa belladonna it contains mainly the toxic Hyoscyamin. Like the banewort S. carnicolia causes death in low concentrations paralyzing the respiratory tract. In former times the European scopolia was used in medicine and an ingredient of salves of witches. S. carniolica was seen as an aphrodisiac and used for various ceremonies. Nowadays it is not in use anymore because of the extremely poisonous effect. Even cows and horses die when they eat just a little bit of the plant. Only in industry the plant is still used to gain atropine and hyoscyamin. S. carniolica should be threatened carefully and it should be kept away from kids.

 

Cultivation

The seeds of the henbane bell need a cold stratification Therefore the seeds in the substrate should be put for 6 to 8 weeks into the fridge at a temperature of about 4°C. After that the seeds in the substrate should be placed sunny. The seeds need light to germinate. Due to that fact they should only be pressed slightly into the substrate. At a temperature of about 23°C and constantly moist substrate, germination occurs after 3 weeks.