Scopolia japonica

Scopolia japonica, the Japanese scopolia, is a herbaceous perennial in the Solanaceae family, native to mountain woodlands and shaded ravines of Japan and parts of Korea. It grows from a stout fleshy rhizome to a height of 30–60 cm, with erect glabrous stems bearing alternate ovate to elliptic membranous leaves 8–15 cm long and entire or shallowly toothed margins. In spring the plant produces solitary, nodding, bell-shaped flowers in the leaf axils; the corolla is dull purple-brown to greenish outside and yellowish within, about 2 cm long, with five short rounded lobes. The fruit is a globose capsule enclosed by the persistent inflated calyx, containing many small reniform seeds. The plant contains high concentrations of tropane alkaloids — chiefly hyoscyamine, atropine, and scopolamine — and the rhizome (Scopoliae Rhizoma, 'rohto') is listed in the Japanese Pharmacopoeia as a pharmaceutical source of these compounds. All parts are highly toxic.