Toxic plant! Several weeks ago I visited my brother in Hastings. He drew my attention to a mystery plant in his garden. Neither of us had seen such a plant before and it was not something he had planted so it must have self-seeded.  He did some research and identified it as The Devil's Trumpet aka Jimson Weed aka Thorn Apple (Daturia stramonium).
 I didn't have a camera with me at the time so I've asked him to send me some pics (above). It's taller by now and the numerous rather lovely flowers have faded; there is still one of the pale blue trumpet-like flowers visible towards the bottom of the top photo. The others have turned into prickly fruit type seed heads. But these fruits are not for eating, nor any part of the plant.
 D. stramonium originates from North America or possibly Mexico but by whatever the means of travel there are reports of it growing in diverse parts of the world (in this case the seaside in southern England!). Various botanical sources quote the following account written by one Robert Beverly in 1705. It describes an incident in Jamestown, Virginia in 1679 when a group of soldiers thought the plant's leaves could be used as a vegetable:

 "Some of them eat plentifully of it, the Effect of which was a very pleasant Comedy; for they turn'd natural Fools upon it for several Days. One would blow up a Feather in the Air; another wou'd dart Straws at it with much Fury; another, stark naked, was sitting in a Corner, like a Monkey, grinning and making Mows at them; a Fourth would fondly kiss and paw his Companions and snear in their Faces, with a Countenance more antick than any Dutch Droll... Indeed, they were not very cleanly; for they would have wallow'd in their own Excrement, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple Tricks they play'd, and after Eleven Days, return'd to themselves again, not remembering anything that had pass'd".

 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky. Joking aside it's a moot point whether ingesting this plant would be a "very pleasant Comedy" or a pretty bad trip so all in all not one for the salad bowl!