Re: Re: Birds eating Iris seeds

Years ago I picked a good sized bunch of wild Versicolor pods on stems
from a nearby bog lakeshore. I put them stems and all into an empty 2
gallon pail and left them on a table in an unheated greenhouse to dry
out. I didn't hang them in a paper bag from a rafter to keep them away
from mice because I had read that iris seeds were poisonous.

One day I checked on them to see how they were drying. Many of the pods
had split open and dropped their seeds into the bottom of the pail. Most
of the remaining pods had been chewed open by mice. There were no seeds
in the pail or on the table, but lots of sawdust created from mice
opening seeds from their outer shells in the pail and on the table.

I doubt if the mice went through all that trouble to clean so many seeds
if they weren't edible. Versicolor seeds must not be poisonous to mice.

Dan Mason    zone 3, NW ON Canada

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On 1/11/2014 10:46 AM, Chuck Chapman wrote:
> While I was looking up information on this I found a couple of bird
> sites  saying iris seeds were poisonous to seeds. But no references
> to back it. Chuck Chapman


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