TOXIC GARDENS AND ADDITIONAL POISONOUS PLANTS FOR PETS

[Wanda P]

Here is some additional information that i posted way back in 2008- u may google and double check before planting a pet friendly garden!

Dangerous Beauty - A Toxic Garden!
by Susan Johnston


September 24, 2007
I'm not quite sure why or how, but I seem to be attracted to plants
with a dark side to their beauty. I'm always finding my garden plants
appearing on poisonous plant lists! Sometimes it's unexpected and
sometimes I plant them knowingly. How can you not plant the beautiful,
lovely-scented Lily of the Valley in shady spots for a Spring flowers
and fragrance? It's surprising, though, how many people are not aware
that almost all parts of the plant have poisonous or toxic properties,
including the water that cut flowers have been in (although there is
some doubt about whether the toxic substances would be present in
harmful quantities in the water), so I'm constantly warning people to
be careful with them if the pick a Spring Lily of the Valley bouquet.
'Poisonous' is the most common way to refer to plants with which one
needs to be careful. But some references differentiate between
poisonous and toxic - poisonous being those most likely to have lethal
effects, while toxic is anything with a potential harmful effect, with
toxicity ranging from mild to lethal. In other words, anything
poisonous is toxic, but not all toxic plants are poisonous…. But
somehow 'toxic' lacks the immediate danger signal recognition that
'poisonous' has - Toxic Ivy or Toxic Sumac packs less of a 'punch' than
Poison Ivy or Poison Sumac! There is also a close parallel in many
cases between 'medicinal' plants and toxic ones. The example that would
be familiar to most people is Foxglove. Medicinally, a source of the
heart drugs digitalis and digoxin, inexpert home remedy production
could have very serious, and potentially lethal, side effects,
particularly for persons with heart problems.
Children and animals are more susceptible to toxic substances
(presumably because smaller body mass effectively means a small
quantity of a substance represents a higher relative dose of the toxic
chemical…)
Teaching children at an early age not to eat any fruit or berries on
any plant unless a parent, or someone approved by their parents, tells
them it is safe to do so is a basic safeguard for parents of small
children. (I still remember my mother's warnings never to put any part
of Monkshood in my mouth! We had a large bed of it in our garden.)
Berries and seeds/seed pods should be particularly highlighted as
forbidden as toxic substances are often concentrated in these plant
parts. And teach them the general rule is that if you don't know for
certain if something is edible, assume it isn't!
As a gardener, the more you know about the dangers in your garden, the
better. If you know a plant has potentially toxic effects, you are in a
better position to warn the visitors to your garden to take care - and
remind them of the general rule they should have learned as children
(see above…) If you have children or frequent visits by children, it
might be a good idea to keep the flower/ornamental gardens strictly
separated from the edible gardens so you can designate these areas as
containing things generally safe to eat, while nothing in the rest of
the garden should ever be placed in ones mouth. Anything that straddles
the line between useful/edible/medicinal and toxic (e.g. Elder) should
be in the off-limits area.
The four-footed, furry/hairy type garden visitor is much harder to
teach and monitor! Cats and dogs can be susceptible to the same toxic
substances as humans. On the other hand, their taste sensors seem to
function at a very high level and, with luck, they would reject most
toxic plants on palatability grounds (and, a few grass-eating binges
aside, your average cat or dog is not really a herbivore!) Cattle and
horses can be susceptible as well to toxic plants that establish
themselves in their pasture areas or get baled into their hay.
Palatability can be a protection for them too (have you ever noticed
that most pastures have close cropped grass with patches of untouched
weeds..?) And, hopefully, you don't have too many cattle or horses
straying into your ornamental/flower gardens…. Once again, it's a good
idea to be aware of what is in your garden that could potentially
account for sickness or odd behavior on the part of the four-footed
inhabitants of your particular world.
So where do you go to look for information on toxic plants? On the
Internet, a good general reference source is the Agriculture Canada
Canadian Poisonous Plant Information System at
http://res.agr.ca/brd/poisonpl/title.html which has listings of
poisonous plants by both common and botanical names and summaries for
each plant of it's known or suspected toxicity. If you prefer your
information in hard copy, Agriculture Canada also publishes the
information in a book that is available through them or in book stores
(Chapters has it - Poisonous Plants of Canada, Gerald A. Mulligan and
Derek B. Munroe) for under $10. There a a number of other web sites
that also have lists of poisonous plants (see reference below to the
Children's Safety Association of Canada for example…)
So what are the toxic plants in my garden? They include (or shortly will include):



American elder


autumn crocus


blue flag iris


chrysanthemum


chives (! - but it only seems to be a problem is a horse wanders by for a nibble….)


daffodil & narcissus


dutchman's breeches


European buckthorn (weed!)


foxglove


gas plant


hound's tongue


hydrangea


Japanese wisteria


lupine


lily of the valley


larkspur (delphinium - the Agriculture Canada discussion deals mainly
with wild varieties but I operate on the assumption that cultivated
ones may also have the same effects….)


May-apple


monk's hood


morning glory


primula


red oak


rhubarb


Saskatoon-a Serviceberry


snowdrop


sweet pea


tulip


wild ginger


yellow iris




And a few not on the Agriculture Canada site but on the Children's Safety Association of Canada site (http://www.safekid.org/):



Hollyhock (? A deficiency of this site is it doesn't give any
information on the 'what' or 'how' so it's confusing that Hollyhock is
listed while it also appears in almost every edible flower book I've
seen….)


Mock Orange


tiger lilies


lilac


spirea


Pieris japonica - lily of the valley bush


Rhododendron


sedum


clematis


pansy


peony


anemone



(My apologies to those who want the botanical names for all of the
plants listed - check out the sites listed above and you will find the
botanical names if you need them, although the Children's Safety
Association list omits them for a number of the plants…)
It is difficult to know how accurate, reliable or complete the
information is from any of these sources. It is very easy to assume if
something is written somewhere, it must be right but that is a
dangerous assumption. Because lists differ in which plants are
included, a particularly dangerous assumption would be to assume that
something not on the list you look at is safe to ingest. The safest and
most conservative approach is to keep your ornamental and flower
gardens strictly for their visual and fragrant pleasures (watch out for
bees while examining the fragrance with your nose up close!) and only
ingest those parts of fruits, vegetables and herbs clearly meant for
eating and known with certainty to be safe. It also is wise to garden
with gloves on as a frequent toxic effect is some sort of contact
dermatitis. If you are the adventuresome sort and want to extend your
gardening and culinary experience into the range or non-traditional
edible things, do lots of research and be very sure you know exactly
what is going into your mouth. (Having the local Poison Control Center
number handy wouldn't hurt either….) OK, OK, I'm

Tags: flowers, poisonous