Omnia SanaThis tool aids identification but does not replace an expert. Never eat a wild plant or fungus on the strength of a single feature. When in doubt, throw it out.
Lesser Burdock can be confused with 1 dangerous plant/fungus. Check every distinguishing feature before you trust an identification.
One of the most poisonous plants in Europe. All parts, especially the roots and the shiny black berries, contain tropane alkaloids; poisoning causes dry flushed skin, widely dilated pupils, blurred vision, fever, urinary retention, a racing heartbeat, agitation, hallucinations, delirium, seizures and can be fatal - a few berries can kill a child. The root resembles burdock and other edible roots, and the berries are mistaken for cherries or other dark berries.
Confusable part: First-year taproots dug for use as food or 'burdock root tea'; the root of deadly nightshade closely resembles a burdock root and the two grow as weeds in the same rough ground.
Lesser burdock (Arctium minus) is dug for its long first-year taproot, used as a vegetable and as 'burdock root tea.' Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) grows as a weed in the same disturbed ground and its root closely resembles a burdock root, so belladonna root can be gathered or processed in mistake for burdock. This has caused real poisonings: a JAMA case report (Bryson et al., 1978) describes atropine poisoning from a commercial burdock root tea, and belladonna-contaminated herbal teas have caused severe anticholinergic poisoning from as little as a few milligrams of atropine. Belladonna contains tropane alkaloids (atropine, hyoscyamine, scopolamine); poisoning causes dry flushed skin, widely dilated pupils, blurred vision, fever, a racing heart, agitation, hallucinations, seizures and can be fatal, especially in children.
How to tell them apart
- Whole plant: only dig burdock when you can match the whole living plant - burdock has huge rhubarb-like heart-shaped leaves that are whitish-woolly underneath and, in its second year, the familiar hooked burrs. Deadly nightshade is a branching plant with dull green oval pointed leaves, solitary purple-brown bell-shaped flowers and shiny black cherry-sized berries.
- Berries (decisive if present): burdock never bears berries - it makes bristly burrs. A plant near your 'burdock' bearing shiny black berries in green star-shaped calyces is deadly nightshade - do not dig roots from that ground.
- Best practice: because the roots alone are hard to tell apart, do not wild-harvest burdock root unless an expert has confirmed the living plant - buy it from a reputable supplier instead.
Identify the whole living plant before digging any root. Confirm large rhubarb-like leaves that are woolly-white underneath (and hooked burrs in the second year) for burdock. If there are shiny black berries, purple-brown bell-shaped flowers or oval pointed leaves among the plants, deadly nightshade may be present - do not dig or brew root tea from there. When in doubt, buy burdock rather than foraging the root.
Educational identification aid compiled from the Omnia Sana plant database and cited botanical and toxicological sources. Not medical advice and not a substitute for expert identification.