Atropa pallidiflora is a close relative of the infamous deadly nightshade[1] and, like it, is an extremely poisonous plant, containing a variety of tropane alkaloids valued in medicine for their anticholinergic, antispasmodic and mydriatic properties and deliriant in excess.

Regarding the richness of the Hyrcanian flora - of which Atropa pallidiflora is a noteworthy element - it is worth mentioning that the name of the modern Iranian province of Golestan (which constitutes the easternmost portion of ancient Hyrcania) has the delightful meanings of 'Rose Garden' and 'Land of Flowers'.

Upper leaves quickly diminished and narrowed, bases cuneate, the tips finely acuminate, the smaller ones greatly reduced, oblong-lanceolate becoming almost thread-like.

- and from Atropa acuminata in its leaves with very wide bases, its narrower (acuminate to hair-like) calyx lobes, the shorter pedicels of its flowers and the fact that, when in the early stages of fruiting, the calyces cover the berries to a lesser degree.

However, even allowing for the evidence of said herbarium note (made, presumably, by Dr. Žumer), the matter of the woodiness or otherwise of the species awaits clarification by the collection of more specimens and the photographing of the plant in its natural habitat.

Atropa pallidiflora is confined to the central part of a narrow belt of temperate rainforest fringing the Southern shore of the Caspian Sea, stretching (travelling from West to East) from the Talysh Mountains of the extreme Southeast of Azerbaijan through the Iranian provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran and Golestan and petering out in two spurs of woodland in Iran's North Khorasan province.

Viewed on Google Earth, this richly-forested region (the Shomal) stands out in deep green, contrasting sharply with the arid tones of the bulk of the Iranian plateau to the South, and it comes as no surprise to learn that it constitutes essentially a 'hotter spot' within the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot, namely the Northern edge of the Elburz Range forest steppe ecoregion - which is to say the North slope of the Alborz mountains - benefitting from the moisture from the Caspian Sea.

Atropa pallidiflora is found mainly (possibly even exclusively) in that portion of the Hyrcanian forest belt lying within the province of Mazandaran (see also Tabaristan), although it may occur also in the adjoining parts of eastern Gilan and western Golestan.