Often, the seeds are crushed and swallowed or made into teas to induce intentional intoxication. Apart from the desired hallucinogenic effects, patients often exhibit dilated pupils, increased heart rate, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, numbness of the limbs, and muscle spasms.
Other South American cultures have used the seeds to diagnose illnesses and foretell various future events. Download PDF. Read More. View this author's posts ». Your email address will not be published. Fortunately, eating morning glory flowers is not dangerous, unless the child chokes.
BUT the seeds can be poisonous, especially in large quantities. They contain a chemical similar to LSD. Symptoms can range widely, from diarrhea to hallucinations. Prevent poisoning by keeping seed packets out of children's reach. CALL A year-old girl swallowed several packets of morning glory seeds in an effort to get high. Four hours later she was noted by her mom to be acting strangely and she complained that her arms felt heavy. Gone are the stunning blossoms of bee balm, coneflower, trumpet creeper and other spring and summer bloomers.
In spite of my efforts to dead-head my zinnias to prolong the production of blooms, only a scant few blossoms remain of the kaleidoscope of color once provided by hundreds. Currently, the only plants contributing any color to my backyard landscape and offering food for nectar-feeding bees, butterflies and other insects are butterfly bushes, lantana, Turk's cap and native morning glories that volunteered in my gardens and along the roadside in front of my home.
Although the morning glory is widely recognized where ever it grows, the plant lives under a cloud of confusion. Some people simply adore it, while others revile it.
Although it is often planted for its beautiful flowers, it is rarely touted as a wildlife plant. Consequently, we homeowners are left scratching our heads wondering if it is valued member of our backyard plant community or a plant we should avoid.
Part of the reason for this confusion is that, depending on which botanists you talk to, there are anywhere from 1,, species of morning glories growing worldwide. Sixteen of them are native to the Southeast. On top of that, plant breeders have developed untold numbers of hybrids. This makes it very difficult to characterize the plant. Some are perennials while others are annuals. The vast majority of them produce a vine; however, some are shrubs.
A few morning glories have blossoms up to 8 inches wide, while others display tiny blooms only an inch or so wide. Flowers range from bicolored to varying shades of red, white, blue, purple, pink and even yellow. Some morning glories bloom early; others bear their flowers late in the year. The one trait that the vast majority of morning glories share is that they produce wide-mouthed, funnel-shaped blossoms. The morning glory earned its name from the fact that its beautiful, fragile flowers unfurl in the morning.
However, as we all know, beauty is often fleeting. Such is the case with the morning glory. The flowers last only a day and begin fading about two hours before the sun dips below the horizon.
This attrition is compensated by the fact that individual vines will often bloom until frost. History tells us that the Japanese have been cultivating morning glories since the 9th Century.
The Japanese have become so adept at this art they have developed more varieties than any other nation. The Chinese were among the first to use the morning glory for medicinal purposes. They used it as a laxative. On the other side of the globe, native tribes living in what is now Mexico used morning glories as a medicine and in their religious rituals. Early on, here in America practitioners of folk medicine used various parts of morning glories to treat everything from stomach aches to rheumatoid arthritis.
The morning glory flower has great symbolic meaning to those versed in the language of flowers. The symbolic use of morning glories flourished during the Victorian Era, often depicted in romantic novels and screenplays. In the subtle meanings attributed to different flowers, a blue morning glory blossom represents affection for another, while a red flower denotes strong passion.
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