I’m not asking for knowledge of common garden plants that can be poisonous, I know that, basically. Now, I’m working with a public garden to implement an awareness of what the toxic plants are in their plantings, the likeliness of poisoning, and what staff should do in case of poisoning.
Again, I know the toxicity of most plants, but thought it would be worthwhile to ask this good forum for a real world experience of being poisoned by common garden plants. Of course, the thread sinking like a stone would be just fine, as that would say no one had that unfortunate experience. Any experience, though, would really help with understanding what we should be aware of in a public garden, and, appreciated.
Appreciated, too, would be concerns of parents who wonder about toxic plants, and what would allay those fears.
One of my neighbor’s horses was poisoned by eating oleander leaves along the side of the road. It isn’t native here but it’s common for people to plant hedges of them in town. It was pretty stupid and inconsiderate to do it up here where every other property has horses. I’ve heard of pets dying also because they drank water that had oleander leaves soaking in it.
Yep, my herbalism teacher, in fact. How’s that for irony? She was trimming some wilted leaves and dead flowers off her Thorn Apple (aka, datura). She did one of those things we all do, where we intend to pick off just this one flower, but end up giving the thing a major makeover - with bare hands. She spent the next 6 hours or so tripping balls during a car ride: delerium, hypothermia, tachycardia, the whole bit. She knew that the psychotropic effects were transmitted through skin contact, and had in fact warned all of us about it in prior lectures, she just wasn’t thinking at the time.
Makes me wonder about all those little old ladies with Jimson Weed growing up the sides of their house!
When my brothers and I were very young (I was 5, my brothers 4 and 3) my mom took us on a walk and, pointing out a laurel bush told us they were choke cherries. Mmmm, cherries! We not only ate them, but encouraged the neighbor kids to eat them as well. When everyone’s parents were made aware of what we had eaten, a great neighborhood purging commenced. A year later, after a season of picking and shelling garden peas at my grandparents new farm we came home one weekend to find that the golden chain tree was covered with pea-like pods. Again we shared our snack with the neighborhood kids, and yet another purging occurred. We were preventively told that the wild sweet peas which grew in our ditch were not edible, and neither were the berries of the deadly nightshade which grew alongside of it. Only my youngest brother ate the nightshade berries, I think it was the ‘oooh, shiny’ factor of the deep purple berries. He was taken to the doctor for treatment. This all occurred in western Washington state.
I had a false alarm when I was a little kid. My grandparents had a berry bush growing in the backyard - very pretty red berries a little smaller than cherry tomatoes. I ate a few and then stumbled into the house, coughing and gasping. My parents grabbed a branch off the bush and ran me to the ER.
While waiting to be seen, a little Latino boy came up to us, declared “Chile pequinos! Me gusta!” And started eating them off the branch.
My parents gathered me up, gave the kid the branch, and went home.
I used to run a homeless shelter and there was a big campground next to it in the summer. One day I noticed that all of the teenagers were tripping but all sick to their stomachs so I figured that they had done mushrooms and it would wear off soon and teach them a lesson. They kept getting sicker and sicker though and finally one of them admitted that they found some datura down by the river and made a big batch of tea out of it. We needed a bus to get them all to the hospital. Even the people that do it on purpose only take a tiny amount. It was pretty scary but they were all OK after a few days in the hospital.
One of my neighbours at my last place ended up in hospital from trimming back his oleander mid-Summer.
I didn’t know before that (and clearly, neither did the neighbour) that oleander leaves release volatile compunds in very hot weather. As I understand it, he breathed them in and irritated his … hmm, it was either his throat or lungs, I can’t remember which. He also ended up with a really nasty rash all over his arms and to a lesser extent on his face, too.
Nasty plant, that. I really can’t understand why it’s so massively planted around the place. Yes, it’s hardy, but sheesh… are we really that hard up for plants that we can’t do better than the one that’s poisonous to breathe near or touch on a hot day, and poisonous to eat at any time?
Wow. That really was stupid. I think that people are drawn to them because they have such a long flowering period and need almost no care and they don’t know that they’re poisonous. You’d think that it would occur to school admin staff to check these things out.
<derail> One of our little rural schools is near a cement processing plant on the coast, and they’ve just discovered unacceptable levels of chromium 6 in the dirt all around the school. There’s still a lot of testing going on, parents are freaking out and Erin Brockovich has been holding meetings with local residents just in case. It’s pretty scary for the residents, to put it mildly.
</derail>
Yeah, it’s not to be played with. Datura really can kill you in surprisingly small oral doses, even if you’ve safely used it before. I’ve never tried it, and if I ever do, it will be with a sober nurse or EMT to watch over me. I mean, even over on Erowid, they’re scared of Datura! That’s gotta tell you something, silly psychonauts!
I tried it once when I was younger by chewing a tiny bit of a plant for just a few moments. I didn’t like the high very much compared to acid or mushrooms. Trying not to throw up while tripping wasn’t fun.
You’re right, there, Datura isn’t to be messed with. Your poor herbal teacher must’ve been embarrassed about that!
Karyn, Oleander is one of the plants we’re concerned with, as well as Taxus (yew), and hellebores, since they are planted in this public garden.
kaiwik, what was used in your neighborhood as a purgative? Ipecac, or taken to the hospital and stomach pumped?
and, WhyNot, since I know you have a knowledge of medicinal plants, and have kids; what plants do you most observe kids being attracted to that might not be so good?
Tomato leaves are poisonous? HOW poisonous? I’ve never heard this. I don’t doubt you, but I’m curious…am I the Lone Ranger here? Is this common knowledge?
elelle this all occurred in the early ‘60’s, and the first purgative of choice was to make us drink a glass of baking soda water very quickly. Since I was not compliant with drinking the soda water the second time my father rammed his big ol’ finger down my throat. (To this day I can’t even brush my teeth with baking soda toothpaste.) My youngest brother was taken to the hospital and had his stomach pumped when he ate the nightshade berries.
I just looked it up, and apparently there are small concentrations of the poison IN the tomatoes themselves, which gives them their distinctive taste. But I’m more than a little unnerved by the fact that something I eat is growing on a plant that could kill me.
I had a sense this would be an interesting answer. I didn’t expect the baking soda purge, though. Yecchhh. Glad you survived.
Regarding tomatoes; the glycoalkaloids that are toxic in leaves are an irritant tothe gastro system, and are rapidly excreted ; it would take a huge amount of tomato leaves ingested to have a truly detrimental effect. It was not my intent to alarm people about commonly grown plants. Honestly, tomatoes are the most commonly grown backyard garden vegetable, and how many of us can say they know of a kid getting really sick from them?
Most toxic plants, for good reason, taste nasty, so our, at least once connected tastebuds for foraging, refuse them before enough can be eaten to cause real damage.
Mistletoe, pyracantha and holly, along with the fairly well known poinsettia, are common household poisoning dangers, especially during the holiday season of course. Anything with bright berries or apple/cherry looking fruit are a kid attractant.
That being said, I think it’s far more useful to educate kids how to detect probable toxins - bitter taste being the first giveaway, tingling or numbness on the tongue the second. Almond smells are probably best avoided until you know more. Known toxic plants in the area should be identified, of course, but I also hate to see people go overboard and scream at their kid not to taste the wood sorrel or dandelions because “that might be poisonous!!!” Most plants aren’t, and most of those that are have easy warning signs.
I never did stuff like that when I was a kid.