Bryonies are occasionally grown in gardens, sometimes accidentally, sometimes deliberately so. Some species find use in herbal medicine. Generally however, these plants are poisonous, some highly so, and may be fatal if ingested. Cucurbitacin glycosides are primarily responsible for the plants' bitterness and emetic effects.[2]
Variants of the plants' name, such as Bryony, are used in some cultures as female given names. They were quite popular in the 18th century.
The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom named two ships HMS Bryony after the plant.
Species
Twelve species are currently accepted by the USDA:[3]
Ten of these are supported in a molecular-phylogenetic analysis:[4]
The only English species, B. dioica (red bryony), grows in hedgerows as far north as Yorkshire.
Bryonia acuta Desf. (formerly sometimes included in B. cretica)
Bryonopsis (meaning "looks like bryony"), a now-invalid genus currently assigned to close (Diplocyclos) and somewhat more distant (Kedrostis) relatives of Bryonia
Volz, S. M., and S. S. Renner (Volz and Renner) 2009. Phylogeography of the ancient Eurasian medicinal plant genus Bryonia (Cucurbitaceae) inferred from nuclear and chloroplast sequences. Taxon 58(2): 550-560.
Renner S. S., Scarborough J., Schaefer H., Paris H.S., and J. Janick. (Renner et al. (2008) Dioscorides's Bruonia melaina is Bryonia alba, not Tamus communis, and an illustration labeled Bruonia melaina in the Codex Vindobonensis is Humulus lupulus not Bryonia dioica. pp. 273–280. In: Pitrat, M., ed., Cucurbitaceae 2008, https://w3.avignon.inra.fr/dspace/handle/2174/218Archived 2012-03-28 at the Wayback Machine