Jimsonweed, in Newburgh? Really?

When Gene Autry wrote, “Back in the Saddle Again,” he must have been high on jimsonweed. The song, extolling the virtues of the cowboy culture of the great southwestern U.S., has a verse that goes: “Where the longhorn cattle feed on the lowly jimsonweed / I’m back in the saddle again … “

I’m here to tell you that if any longhorn cattle, or any other breed, ever ate jimsonweed, they’d hallucinate, get sick and die. Here’s a tidbit from the Michigan State University Agricultural Extension:  Jimsonweed has long been known to be toxic to all classes of livestock and to humans as well. Horses rarely consume Jimsonweed if other forage is available because of its foul odor and taste. All parts of the Jimsonweed plant are poisonous; its toxicity is caused by tropane alkaloids. Symptoms of poisoning in horses may occur within minutes and may include: seeking water to drink, dilated pupils, agitation, increased heart rate, trembling, convulsions, coma and possibly death.

And the Cornell University College of Agricultural Sciences adds this quaint story:

In 1676, British soldiers were sent to stop the Rebellion of Bacon. Jamestown weed (Jimsonweed) was boiled for inclusion in a salad, which the soldiers readily ate. The hallucinogenic properties of jimsonweed took effect. As told by Robert Beverly in The History and Present State of Virginia (1705): The soldiers presented "a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: one would blow up a feather in the air; another would dart straws at it with much fury; and another, stark naked, was sitting in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and sneer in their faces with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll.

"In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, in their folly, destroy themselves - though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. Indeed they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after 11 days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed."

You’d think that longhorn cattle would know better than to eat something whose common names include “mad apple” and “stinkwort.” Anyway, folks, please keep your kids and your longhorn cattle away from my front garden, because look what’s in bloom there:

Jimsonweed! It belongs in Texas. And yet here it is in Newburgh. A bird must have planted it, if you know what i mean.