Hyoscyamus niger

Sticky, foul-smelling Eurasian biennial whose dusky cream-and-purple flowers conceal high levels of hyoscyamine and scopolamine — an ingredient of pre-Christian European ritual, classical antiquity's Oracle at Delphi (per some scholars), and the witches' Sabbath of medieval folklore.

Pioneer of disturbed sandy soils, ruins, and grazed pastures across Europe and western Asia.

The names this organism has been given by the cultures that have lived alongside it. Each carries an entire relationship — what is sacred is never simply translated.

• Bilsenkraut
  German · Pre-Christian Germanic peoples

• Pre-Christian Germanic ritual ('bilsenkraut')
• Medieval European witchcraft
• Brewed historically into beer ('pilsner' is etymologically related)

Henbane sits among the great European deliriants alongside belladonna, datura, and mandrake. Its long folkloric record dwarfs its modern ethnobotanical use.