Humans perhaps were given dominion over the birds and beasts and the lilies of the field (including thorn apple and castor bean) because they have (or should have) the ability to distinguish the good from the bad.
Since the beginning of time, people the world over have lived close to hundreds of plants that can cause irritation, illness, or even death. A few are seriously poisonous; a far greater number are moderately so, producing varying degrees of illness or irritation. Some cause dermatitis, hay fever, or other illnesses as a result of the allergic sensitivity rather than the direct toxicity of the plant.
It would be virtually impossible to ban every plant that is inedible, drug-producing, or even irritating to the skin. Moreover, many such plants are the source of valuable medicines or serve us well as natural insecticides when wisely and carefully used in our gardens.
Children should be taught which plants are harmful and which may be used or eaten or touched with safety. Caution the child old enough to understand about eating wild berries, fruits, and nuts or chewing on bark, branches, or stems. Watch younger children just as you keep them from running into the street or keep dangerous household preparations out of reach. For poisonous plants, whether present in your own garden or in fields nearby, will be encountered.
Apples, peaches, and castor beans contain highly poisonous parts.
Dozens of these plants are attractive garden flowers or shrubs, greatly prized for their beauty or usefulness in landscaping, so many adults and most children do not realize their poisonous characteristics. Who would think, for instance, that daffodils are dangerous? Nevertheless, the bulbs can be fatal if eaten. The beautifully marked castor beans are a natural plaything for a small child, and little children often put things into their mouths. Yet for this poison there is no available antidote.
Even older children have been known to try the “nuts” inside a peach stone. How do I know? Because as a child I tried one of these seeds. They resemble almonds, which I dearly loved. I didn’t know that they contain cyanic acid and that a few of them could kill me. Fortunately, the bitter flavor stopped me after the first bite. Parents can’t think of everything to tell children not to do, so it is indeed fortunate that many dangerous plants do have an unpleasant taste.
But if my mother didn’t know about the peach stones (and I kept my experiment a secret), there wasn’t much else she didn’t know about. She was a skilled herbalist, and I grew up with the salves and tonics she prepared and brewed from the plants she gathered.
She often told me of her adventures in the Indiana woods where she went to gather ginseng. Later, when she and my father were married, she transferred her herb-gathering activities to Kentucky, and still later, when the family came out to Oklahoma, then Indian territory, she found literally new fields to conquer. She learned much herbal lore from Native Americans, who gave her the name Hill-leatah-ha, meaning “one-who-thinks-good.” In those days when there were few doctors and most people made their own medicines, her knowledge was greatly respected. And she was fortunate to be completely unaffected by poison ivy, an immunity that I too am happy to have.
To this day I still grow many of the plants my mother brought in from the woodland to use for their therapeutic or insecticidal properties. Until recently I did not think of them as “companion plants,” though I was clearly aware of their effect when grown in proximity to flowers, fruits, and vegetables.
While I have known since childhood most of the plants likely to be encountered in garden or woodland, there are many things about plants that I am still learning — for instance, that some nonpoisonous plants have been contaminated by neighboring poisonous ones through a chemical chain. The poisonous plant absorbs selenium from the soil, something the “innocent” plants cannot do. In dying and decomposing, the poisonous plant leaves the selenium in a changed state, in a sense predigested, which causes the harmless plant during its next season’s growth to draw the toxic substance into its own system.
I have no degree in botany, nor am I an expert on poisonous plants. Neither shall I try to cover all of them in this brief chapter. Excellent books are available for those who are interested in pursuing the subject in greater detail. Here are only those plants that are most likely to be found in flower or vegetable gardens, or that may arrive, blown in by the wind or other means, as weeds. I have noted with a “D” those plants likely to cause dermatitis, a susceptibility that of course varies from person to person.
The handsome lily of the valley has poisons in both leaves and flowers.
The digitalis in foxglove is a powerful heart stimulant. It may be fatal if the leaves are eaten.
Mistletoe usually won’t be touched by animals, but it is poisonous. However, birds eat the berries without harm.
All parts of the lovely rhododendron are very toxic if eaten.
D = those plants likely to cause dermatitis (susceptibility varies from person to person)
