[1] Scopolia carniolica - the longest-known species and the one with the westernmost distribution - is a creeping perennial plant, with light green leaves and dull reddish-purple flowers (cream-to-yellow in the attractive and more ornamental form hladnikiana, sometimes cultivated as a decorative plant).

Extract of Scopolia (which contains a form of the alkaloid scopolamine) is used in at least one commercial stomach remedy (Inosea, produced by Sato Pharmaceutical).

Other alkaloids found in Scopolia carniolica include cuscohygrine, hyoscyamine, and atroscine.

The coumarin phenylpropanoids umbelliferone and scopoletin have been isolated from the roots of Scopolia japonica.

The most obvious dissimilarity lies in the respective fruits, that of Scopolia being a pyxidium (i.e. a dry, pot-like capsule with an operculum (lid)) while that of Atropa is a juicy, glistening, jet-black berry bearing a superficial resemblance to a cherry - indeed this pyxidium / berry dichotomy constitutes the feature separating the genus Atropa into a subtribe of its own within the Solanaceous tribe Hyoscyameae: all other genera in tribe Hyoscyameae have the same type of dry, pyxidial capsule as Scopolia.