White Bryony
Poisonous 
Autumn 
Spring 
Summer
A poisonous plant that is a purgative and will give you terrible diarrhoea. The root used to be sold to unfortunate victims as mandrake root with unpleasant results. It has male and female flowers on the same plant although the flowers are very similar.
| Hedgerow Type | |
| Common Names | White Bryony, English Mandrake. |
| Scientific Name | Bryonia dioica |
| Season Start | Mar |
| Season End | Nov |
Leaves
Starting almost arrow head shaped but soon developing into palmate, five lobed leaves.
Male Flowers
Five white to green petals with wavy and orange to yellow edged stamen in the middle.
Female Flowers
Five white to green petals with green three forked stigmas in the middle.
Fruit
Small rounded berries starting green and turning from red to dark crimson/purple when mature.
Habitat
Almost anywhere as they spread mainly from seed dispersal by birds but do require a fence or another plant to grow up as they are a fast spreading climber.
Frequency
Fairly common.
Medicinal Uses
Was used as a laxative in the past but the results were so explosive it is not considered safe for this use anymore.
3 comments for White Bryony
I can catch the bus to MK. I live in Oxfordshire. I assume you don’t come this way?
If I can get there I’d be interested.
White bryony is poisonous? Here in Slovenia, my adopted home, we eat a lot of it at this time of year (April, May). The young shoots are used as a substitute for wild asparagus, or as a filler. It is plentiful in the woods here, where is it called ‘belushch’ in dialect. When my mum came over from Somerset she identified it as white bryony and said “That’s poisonous!” My wife has been eating it all her life with no ill effect, although I wouldn’t touch older plants with red berries.
We can not recommend eating White Briony but stories about these things are always interesting.