Poisonous Plants

Walk round almost any garden in early summer and you’ll find a small anthology of poisons: foxgloves leaning out of the shade, lily of the valley under a wall, a clipped yew hedge behind the roses. Most have been grown for centuries by people who came to no harm at all. Yet plant labels, websites and pet-poison lists all carry warnings, and they rarely explain themselves or agree with one another. This book is a calm, factual reference to the plants that are toxic or irritant to people and animals in the garden, the house and the countryside. It explains how plants poison, what the labels and listings actually mean, and why official bodies sometimes rate the same plant quite differently. Each profile sets out which part of the plant is the problem, what effect it has, who is at risk and what the UK label says, with both views given where the authorities disagree. What’s inside • The main toxin groups explained simply, from the heart-affecting glycosides of foxglove to the needle-like crystals in dumb cane • How to read plant labels and their Categories A, B and C, the RHS list and the main pet-poison listings • Skin, sap and sunlight: giant hogweed, rue, euphorbia sap, tulip fingers and the rash that follows a strimmer on a hot afternoon • Garden trees, shrubs, climbers, border plants and bulbs, from yew and laburnum to monkshood and autumn crocus • The kitchen garden: green potatoes, rhubarb leaves, undercooked kidney beans, fruit stones and the daffodil bulb mistaken for an onion • Houseplants and cut flowers, and lilies and cats in full, down to pollen groomed from fur • Dogs, rabbits, tortoises and other pets, plus horses and livestock, with ragwort and the law, sycamore seeds and wilting laurel clippings • Wild plants and foraging look-alikes, especially the carrot…