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Re: Cotoneaster/ Poisionous plants


> I am reading the most awful article on poisonous plants from the April
> edition of an Oz gardening magazine "Your Garden" It is full of silly
> inaccuracies eg Chilli is poisonous,

> celery is toxic,. 

As far as I know, celery is like black pepper, one of those things that,
if you fill laboratory rats with three times their body weight with it
every day for a year, 10% will develop cancer.

> Border lobelia is poisonous. 

I have heard of lobelia being poisonous.

> A cupful of apple seeds is poisonous - so silly.

They said a cupful of apple seeds is poisonous?  Gee...I just finished a
cup this morning, and I'd been saving them for 3 years for the
privelege....

> Do any ozies know if Fly agaric mushroom grows in Australia? I have never
> seen it. It is hardly a common plant in domestic gardens!!

It grows in Seattle, and I have only seen it once in 10 years here!

> Its all so silly -  almost anything in excess is poisonous.

I've seen these articles before; they do tend to go overboard.  I suspect
that it's because at least in the U.S. (can't speak for Oz), we have
become such a litigous society that everyone is afraid of being sued if
someone's kid comes into their yard and eats the Aconitum.  But there's
another side to it too; and that is the tendency of parents to want to
protect their kids from anything dangerous by taking that away.  Not that
it isn't reasonable to an extent; you don't generally leave poisons where
they can get to them, etc.  But kids also do have to be taught never to
put things in their mouths that they don't know.  Can you imagine some
family in the olden days saying "well, we won't grow potatoes as long as
we have toddlers around.."  They need to learn common sense.

I was struck, while in Holland, at how many places were free from guard
rails - edges of canals in places, the edges of and old fort here and
there; and it caused me to think how such a thing could not exist here -
it would have a rail or some sign to the effect of "falling off the wall
is hazardous to your health."  They came out with bicycle helmets and now
they are required in many places; you now have to wear seatbelts or you
are fined, it's as if the government wants to be mom, and the "everything
is poisonous" articule are the public picking up the baton in a way.
What's next, a "banned garden plant" list?  :)

Bob
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