Poisonous Plants

1. Animals and Poisonous plants

Plants can be poisonous to domesticated animals and not to native wildlife.

For example, deer can browse on yew (Taxus) foliage, but a mouthful of yew foliage

can kill a full grown horse.

Sometimes, domesticated animals will develop a taste for a poisonous plant and will

actually look for it.

Eating plants with poisonous parts is especially dangerous to pregnant animals since

it can affect the fetus. The baby animal can be affected in many ways; some poisons

can actually cause a sheep to look cyclops like with only one eye in the middle of its

head.

2. Birds and poisonous plants

If birds can eat it, it is not necessarily safe for people to eat.

Birds can eat fruit that may be poisonous to people. Birds commonly eat poison ivy

fruit, and that is one reason why poison ivy is so common in gardens.

3. Poisonous and its meaning for plants

When we hear the word poisonous, we usually think of something that can kill us.

With plants, eating parts of them is not usually fatal, but can cause severe stomach

problems.

Some plants have both poisonous and edible parts. For example, underground potato

tubers are edible, but potato fruit are poisonous. Tomato fruits are edible, but tomato

plant leaves and stems are poisonous.

Some plants are very poisonous at certain growth stages. Cocklebur (Xanthium

strumarium) is very poisonous to animals at the seed and seedling stage with the first

cotyledon leaves being especially poisonous.

Some plants have poisonous compounds that can be disabled by boiling them in water

and throwing out the water several times. Other plant compounds are not affected by

boiling or cooking.

Some poisonous plants have a bitter taste, others do not.

Many plants with medicinal value are poisonous in larger doses. Some medicinal

plants have been found to cause cancer or liver damage.

Become aware or plants in your home or garden that may be poisonous, but don’t try to

destroy all of them. Teach your children not to eat anything that they are not familiar

with. Teach them the difference between edible vegetables and weeds.

4. Poisonous plants and children

Plants with poisonous parts can be especially poisonous to young children since

poisoning is tied to percent body weight, and a mouthful of something is a much higher

percent body weight to a small child.

Small children tend to put anything in their mouth, even if it doesn’t taste good.