I think the correct word usage here would be "PRESUMED to be poisonous." Unlike Jefferson and his sadly untasted tomatoes, it appears there is no doubt in anyone's mind, including your own, that this nightshade is deadly poisonous. I am, myself, a preparer and user of many medicinal plants, and grow entire beds of cohosh, echinacea, astragalus, valerian, and scutellaria. So I can agree with you up to a point about honoring a plant for its medicinal utility. Let's consider growing this nightshade, indeed very carefully, if we are interested in preparing our own eczema medicine. And let's not discount the fact that many, gardeners, including me, favor aconitums, foxgloves, hellebores, all of which are undeniably toxic if ingested. But in my case, with an entire berry orchard nearby (currants, blueberries, gojis, buckthorn), I think caution is the best choice in choosing to grow yet another berry producer, a poisonous temptation, which everyone agrees is a notoriously invasive shrub that that could potentially entice some neighborhood children to conceivably put it in their mouths. It is not anything I want to deal with. Nor am i willing to give it away to friends as a plant gift. I was mostly looking for something ornamental and inexpensive to fill up a hole in my garden from a tree that died when it hit zero fahrenheit last winter. i can do better than the nightshade. That's the background which motivated my action to get rid of this invasive plant.

Got some other responses and I think it's a West Indian Nightshade (Solanum ptycanthum dunal). The description - including size - and pictures match perfectly. Yep, it's considered a noxious weed, but so are some other plants used in wildlife gardening. Reports of toxicity are varied but all seem to agree that a considerable amount of the berries and/or plant itself would have to be consumed to cause serious harm. I don't have to worry about children accidentally eating any of the berries, my yard is fenced and locked, and since the plant doesn't grow very large, I may try starting a few from seed since the mockingbirds appear to love the berries. Everything I plant is for the birds or butterflies; had to get rid of the grape vines since the only things eating the grapes were possums and my dogs. After relocating a litter of 7 "teenage" possums and realizing I would never keep my dogs and the grapes apart (grapes and raisins are very toxic to dogs), I reluctantly had my vines relocated to someone else's yard. Thanks again - if I see any Chinaberrys, now I'll know what they look like! Gretchen

I had a great Thanksgiving, Mary! The plant does indeed look like an oakleaf hydrangea. The only seeds I've seen were still on the plant, and they had a sort of 'maple' seed look, a thin, papery, wafer thing with a seed in it. I don't know if the seed in the papery covering has a hard shell. My daughter has some oakleaf hydrangeas, and, if I get to her house soon, I'll see if they have any seeds on them. I agree it couldn't be a milkweed, at least not any I'm familiar with. Sherry

Keith Warren hybrids between Shantung and Norway maples from the J Frank Schmidt nursery in Oregon have been planted in numbers on streets in my area, with similarly broad habits being seen - among the selections used so far. But these have also had thicker twigs, plainer bark and less deeply lobed leaves than your plant - reflecting the Norway maple involvement. Also these hybrids have some toothing of the leaves. http://jfschmidt.com/introductions/norwegiansunset/index.html http://jfschmidt.com/introductions/pacificsunset/index.html The somewhat corky bark of your tree also helps separate it from related wild species of maple (Acer pictum and A. cappadocicum).