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Physostigma venenosum
Also called Ordeal Bean
Physostigma venenosum is a tropical African climbing legume whose seeds are highly poisonous, containing physostigmine. It is grown mainly as a botanical curiosity and is not a practical garden or houseplant.
Physostigma venenosum, the Calabar bean or ordeal bean, is a species of leguminous plant in the family Fabaceae, endemic to tropical Africa, with a seed poisonous to humans. It derives the first part of its scientific name from a curious beak-like appendage at the end of the stigma, in the centre of the flower; this appendage, though solid, was originally believed to be hollow (hence the name from φῦσα, a bladder, and stigma).
Calabar bean contains physostigmine, a reversible cholinesterase inhibitor alkaloid. The alkaloid physostigmine acts in effect like nerve gas, affecting communication between the nerves and muscles and resulting in copious salivation, seizures, loss of control over the bladder and bowels, and eventually loss of control over the respiratory system, causing death by asphyxiation.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Physostigma venenosum by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
