Beware of Toxic Plants

After living in the city for many years and then moving out to the country, I began to realize that I was meeting some new plants that were growing freely within my flower beds. As I began to pull these unwanted plants, I noticed that simply allowing the plant to lightly brush my skin at the top of my gardening gloves, caused a rash and immediate itching. I wasn't too sure what the culprits were, but I knew I needed to avoid them.

I have always loved beautiful plants and flowers and I wanted my flower beds to become a thing of beauty. However, "mother nature" seems to have other plans for my flower beds. We seem to grow more weeds and unwanted plants than the kind of plants and flowers we would like to grow. Since our area has clay soil, it is very difficult to remove weeds unless it has rained recently. Our soil becomes similar to concrete when it dries out, something else I discovered as I tried to remove the weeds from our landscaping.

We recently had a very fast growing plant that appeared in our backyard bird sanctuary. The plant shot up so quickly I knew it was going to be trouble. It was actually quite a lovely plant with its trumpet shaped white blossoms that only opened up in the evening and closed the next morning. It seemed to be just the opposite of a Morning Glory plant. After doing some searching online, I discovered that it is a Jimson Weed. This plant is highly toxic to humans and to animals if ingested. It also goes by the name "Loco Weed" due to its hallucinogenic properties. This is apparently a very common plant, growing in just about every part of the U.S. and Canada and is one to avoid at all costs.

I began to study about other plants that might be trouble for the gardener. Here are a few plants that are a Class 4 Toxin and can cause skin rashes, itching and dermatitis simply by coming in contact with the leaves, sap, juice or thorns of these plants:

Agapanthus
Amaryllis
Anemone
Aster
Baby's Breath
Bleeding Heart
Bougainvillea (thorns)
Buttercup
Caladium
Chamomile
Daffodil Bulb
Elephant's Ear

This gives you an idea as to what kind of plants can cause problems, especially if you have sensitive skin or are prone to allergies. Many of these plants are commonly grown in our flower beds and back yards and this list is just a small sample of commonly grown toxic plants.

You can view a more complete list of Toxic Plants that are divided according to levels of toxicity:

Class 1 Major Toxicity
Class 2 Minor Toxicity
Class 3 Oxalates
Class 4 Dermatitis
Class 5 Animal Toxicity

Becoming familiar with problem plants can save us a lot of misery and just might save the life of someone we love, even our pets. It is also a very good idea to keep the telephone number for your nearest poison control center close at hand just in case you or a child should accidentally ingest a portion of one of these poisonous plants.

Sources:

http://www.doitnow.org/pages/525.html

http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu/ce/king/poisplant/tox-com.htm