Left the boy on ‘bean work’ around a poisonous perennial (10)
I believe the answer is:
belladonna
'a poisonous perennial' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both plants as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'left the boy on bean work around' is the wordplay.
'left' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'the boy' becomes 'dall' ().
'work' indicates an anagram.
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'dall' written backwards gives 'llad'.
'bean' with letters rearranged gives 'bena'.
'llad'+'on'='lladon'
'lladon' inserted inside 'bena' is 'BELLADONNA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for belladonna that I've seen before include "brought a sparkle to the eye" , "Could it poison" , "Deadly nightshade or atropine" , "plant" , "Drug made from deadly nightshade" .)