An amateur gardener has spoken of her shock after discovering a potentially deadly plant growing in her vegetable patch.

Green-fingered Linda Patel, of Westfield Avenue, discovered the unusual looking plant after it sprouted next to a bird table in her back garden.

Intrigued by the plant's distinctive spiked pods and bright white flowers, Linda asked her sister, a keen horticulturalist, to find out what the unusual plant was.

Warned by her husband, Ravi, that he thought the plant was potentially poisonous, Linda began searching the internet to find out what it was.

However, it was only after seeing an article in a national newspaper that she realised the plant's true identity, the Datura stramonium – an extremely poisonous and potentially lethal tropical weed.

Linda said: “I only noticed the plant when I was attending to my new vegetable patch.

“Then my husband recognised it. I don't know where he had seen it before, but he said he didn't think it was something that should be there.

“Then I was just having my lunch reading the paper and I saw an article about the same plant being found in Sussex.”

The Datura stramonium, more commonly known as the devil's weed or devil's snare, is more frequently found in south and central America.

Indeed, parts of the plant are so poisonous South American Indians dipped arrows and spears in the plant's seeds to utilise its poison when hunting.

The plant has recently been found by several gardeners in southern England, including in gardens in Hampshire and Suffolk.

Linda, 61, says she can only imagine one of the plant's seeds was dropped into her garden by one of the many birds who feed on seeds on her bird tables.

She added: “I was amazed when I saw how poisonous it was.

“It is a shame because the seed pods and the flowers are quite attractive.

“I'm not sure how my husband knew it was so poisonous, maybe he watches too much National Geographic.”

And having discovered the plant's hidden dangers, Linda say she will have to dispose of the plant very carefully.

Linda added: “I think we will probably dig it up. My husband has suggested drying it out and burning it.

“We obviously can't just put it in our green bin because we wouldn't want whatever parts of it are poisonous harming anyone.”

Ted Cakebread, president of the Rickmansworth Horticultural Society, said he had not come across the Datura stramonium but had seen plants from the same family growing in the UK.

He said: “It is not native to this country but we do get the occasional specimen turning up.

“How they get here heaven only knows, but it does happen.”