Re: OLEANDERS Beautiful but poisonous.
CooperTaggart wrote:
>
> I'm going to have to agree with Helene;
> I think that Oleander is a wonderful, useful, appropriate plant. The problem
> is perhaps it's being used so often and sometimes where another choice or
> variation would be more pleasing. Context is everything. Here in Southern
> California, along with the pink and white there is also a great red, and an
> apricot colored one too. On a large property, or along the highway or
> freeway, these make wonderful billowing hedges of color.
>
> I'm going to add to the top ten by making one top ten of useful climate
> appropriate plants that we take for granted in Southern California. These
> all speak to me of California, many are plants that have adorned gardens
> since the mission days:
>
> Schinus molle California Pepper tree
> Nerium oleander Oleander
> Olea europea Olive tree
> Agave Century plant
> Agave Swan-neck agave
> Bougainvillea, esp. San Diego Red and Orange King
> Opuntia ficus-indica, especially as a hedge
> Rosa polyantha "Cecile Brunner"
> Artemisia "Powis Castle"
> Crocasmia crocosmiifolia Montbretia
>
> Twelve more, some ubiquitous, some not.
>
> Rosa damascena (I think) "Belle of Portugal"
> Aloes----all of them!
> Salvias--------all of them!
> Euphorbia, esp. cotinifolia
> Leonotis leonurus
> Rosa banksiae "Lady Banks' Rose"
> Plectranthus-----as John McGregor has already commented, approaching salvias
> for breadth and usefulness in our climate
> Crinum lilies, all of them but esp. that wonderful one with the maroon
> leaves
> Cardoon--------------------my favorite architectural weed
> Echeverias
> Aeoniums
> Sedums
> Amaryllis belladonna "Naked Lady"
Laura
I am sure you are correct about the force of association as a factor in
what plants we like or don't like.
For me Oleander so much means the lovely big bush of the pink double in
the garden of my childhood home near Nairobi, also a wonderful bush of
the same bursting with bloom we once photographed on the shores of Lake
Victoria in East Africa during a very happy holiday spent
circumnavigating the lake. I don't grow it myself however, having found
early on that my summer is not often hot enough to bring out the flowers
properly.
I don't grow Aloes either, though I am fond of them, because my patch is
just a bit on the cold side for them in winter. Many species were very
common wild plants in my part of East Africa and I gathered up and
planted any sort I could find on a rocky outcrop - a natural rock-garden
which nature had thoughtfully provided- in my first garden. When I later
had a garden business here I often used them on exposed banks and
suchlike when designing for other people living in warmer suburbs near
the sea.
Agaves, on the other hand, I really dislike. They are not, of course
native in East Africa, but were widely grown there on the very dry
plains adjacent to our farming district as a source of sisal fibre. The
sight of those rows and rows of plants at various stages of use and
decrepitude was so dreary it put me off forever. In addition I have
never had any garden big enough to accomodate a full-grown plant of any
of the species, which are too unfriendy to put where one might brush up
against them. In fact there are many large clumping plants, NZ flax for
instance which I abhore also because they seem so overwhelming in such
close quarters (even if they are not spiky).
I am amused to see Leonotus leonurus listed. In our African farm it was
considered a real nuisence weed, taking up good pasture with
ever-spreading thickets of tall vigorous stems which the stock avoided.
However, ordinary yellow Chrysanthemums I don't dislike for their
associations, but simply because their particular shade of yellow
somehow grates on me.
Another case of this is actually a colour COMBINATION which is sometimes
seen in local park bedding of African Marigolds (which I don't much go
for anyhow) in a mixture of orange and lemon shades - ugh!! Come to
think of it, I am apparently pretty selective about yellow/orange shades
in general.
And, If I may combine two topics, we are well aware in NZ of the
toxicity of oleander wood and foliage. Some years a go a party of
teenagers (I think in Christchurch) thought they would try out burning
some and inhaling the smoke "for kicks". I really can't remember the
outcome, but there were certainly some very sick youngsters and there
may have been fatailities.
The message is I think, that one might compost the leaves and shoots and
even grind up the stems for mulch with little danger, but one must
NEVER burn them where the smoke can be inhaled and certainly never
ingest any part of them..
I myself when about seven or eight years old must have had an unwitting
brush with death, as I suddenly had the whim to pick a bunch of the
flowers for my mother. Anybody who has tried snapping the stem will know
they are very fibrous and resist fiercely as I soon found. Not deterred
I just did the picking with my teeth and can testify to the extremely
unpleasent bitter taste (which caused me to spit a lot and presumably
got rid of any toxin, as I never suffered any ill-effects).
I think myself that there are a lot of misconceptions about toxicity of
plant material. There are only a few things which poison on contact,
mainly blistering or causing rashes on the skin. For many more one has
to actually deliberately take the poison into one's body. Castor beas
seeds for instance, will only kill you if you deliberately eat them
(something which did indeed happen before I was born to a young man
known to my parents).
As far as eating the toxic materials is concerned, few people are likely
to simply browse on foliage of woody plants, but grazing stock can be at
risk. I remember once seeing mention of someone cutting yew foliage and
throwing it into an adjacent paddock, where it caused the death of (I
think) some hoses which found it.
Those who are keen on unusual salad materials and like to try plants
gathered from the wild need to beware that many harmless and pleasant
herbs have relations not nearly so benign, so it pays to become
proficient in one's botany before wild gathering.. Just to give one
example, which can sometimes be found in my neighbourhood. In wild
places we can find Hemlock (Conium maculatum) -not the tree, but the
herb whose extract Socrates was forced to drink. Superficially this is
quite similar to several other umbelliferous plants like celery or
uncurled parsley, but as the fate of Socrates testifies not at all a
nice thing to include in one's salad.. (In case you want to know how to
tell it, the stem is noticeably covered with dark spots which don't ever
occur on the "good" herbs.)
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
