When
poisonous plants are eaten, the toxic principle (alkaloids, glycosides, peptides,
resins, volatile oils, or oxalates) may cause any of the following to occur (example
of poisonous plant noted for each):
In
certain species, some plant parts are poisonous while other parts of the same
plant are not. Therefore, it is better not to eat any portion of a suspicious
plant.
IN CASE OF POISONING: Call your local or regional poison control
center. Keep remaining parts of the suspect plant because this will help to make
a positive identification.
No
list of poisonous plants is ever complete because there are many unknown species
and also because there are matters of interpretation. Therefore, instead of a
list we offer the following list of links to authoritative and informative websites.
Canadian
Poisonous Plants Information System
www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/pp/poison?p_x=px
Connecticut
Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES) Poisonous Plants
www.caes.state.ct.us/FactSheetFiles/PlantPathology/fspp075f.htm
Cornell
University Poisonous Plants
www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/index.html
Florida
Poisonous Plants
www.floridaplants.com/mpois.htm
Internet
Links for Botany and Plant Ecology
www.westminster.edu/staff/athrock/ECOLOGY/Botlinks.htm
Pesky
Poisonous Plants
www.aad.org/Kids/plants.html
Texas
A&M Poisonous Plants and Plant Parts
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/PLANTanswers/publications/poison/poison.html
University
of Pennsylvania Poisonous Plants
http://cal.vet.upenn.edu/poison
US
Army Center Guide to Poisonous and Toxic Plants
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/ento/PLANT.HTM
USDA
Agricultural Research Service Poisonous Plant Research Laboratory
www.pprl.usu.edu
top
of page