Kitchen Garden Forum

I was given seeds years ago and grow this plant each year but I have long forgotten its name, can anyone help?
It is a annual, geminates well and is very fast growing

It grows 2-3 feet tall.

Has blue flowers,

and very distinctive seed pods.

I think it is the shoofly plant (Nicandra physalodes). I had one as a seedling a few years ago, which grew and flowered, and this year about five have appeared around the place. This is probably seeds surviving in compost though I have a feeling that I once read that it is sometimes included in bird seed and spreads that way.

I was quite pleased to see it and the seedling leaves are quite distinctive so no chance of weeding it by mistake.

I think the other common name for it is, Apple of Peru.

- and it is poisonous, like most of its relatives in the nightshade family.

Thank you, I’ve been scouring the internet for years trying to find it.

Poisonous? Is that only to humans? The first year it self seeded its self every where, now I have to fight with the birds and the mice for seeds.

Probably all the green (and blue/purple) parts are poisonous? Maybe the seeds are edible (I'm not going to try!) like poppy seeds, where the rest of the plant is poisonous too. The birds also like poppy seeds.