Poisonous Food Plants

• Potato (Solanum tuberosum) Can contain the glycoalkaloid solanine; this develops as the eyes prepare to sprout chiefly as a result of exposure to light. Green tinged flesh is a sign that this process has begun.
• Apple (Malus domestica) Seeds contain cyanogenic acids in them; although the amount found in most apples won't kill a person, with enough seeds, one could die from it.
• Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Foliage and vines contain alkaloid poisons
• Rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) Leaves contain oxalic acid salts
• Cherry (Prunus cerasus), as well as other species such as peach, plum, almond and apricot (Prunus) Leaves and pits contain cyanogenic glycosides
• Pokeweed (Phytolacca sp.) Leaves, berries and roots contain phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccigenin - toxin in young leaves is reduced with each boiling and draining.

Poisonous Garden Plants

• Privet (Ligustrum sp.) Possibly fatal to humans, berries contain ligustrin and syringin
• Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) Fatal to humans, contain cardiac or steroid glycosides
• Lilies Most are poisonous, especially to cats
• Yew (Taxus baccata, the "English yew") All parts of the plant, except for the fleshy red bit of the fruit, contain taxane alkaloids
• Deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna) All parts of the plant contain the toxic alkaloid atropine
• Oleander (Nerium oleander) All parts are toxic, containing nerioside, oleandroside, saponins, cardiac glycosides, but especially the leaves and woody stems
• Castor oil plant (Ricinus communis) Oil is purgative; seed meal separate from oil is source of the deadly toxic protein, Ricin
• Aconite (wolfsbane, monkshood) (Aconitum napellus) The poison is concentrated in the unripe seed pods and roots
• Delphinium Contains the alkaloid Delsoline
• Angel's Trumpet (Brugmansia); All parts of the plant contains the tropane alkaloids scopolamine and atropine.
• Datura; Contains the alkaloids scopolamine and atropine. Datura has been used as a hallucinagenic drug by the native peoples of the Americas.
• Poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) Notable for not being poisonous, despite persistent beliefs to the contrary, although may cause an upset stomach.

Poisonous Wild Plants

• Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Poison Oak (T.diversilobum), and Poison Sumac (T.vernix) All contain a highly irritating oil known as urushiol(this is actually not a poison but an allergen)
• Deadly Nightshade/Belladonna (Atropa belladonna) All parts of the plant contain the toxic alkaloid atropine
• Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum) All parts of the plant except the ripe fruit contain the toxic glycoalkaloid solanine
• Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) All parts of the plant contain the relatively simple alkaloid coniine
• Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) Green portions of the plant, unripe fruit, and especially the rhizome contain the non-alkaloidal toxin podophyllotoxin
• Darnel/Poison Ryegrass (Lolium temulentum) The seeds and seed heads of this common garden weed may contain the alkaloids temuline and loliine. Some experts also point to fungus ergot or fungi of the genus endoconidium that grow on the seed heads of rye grasses.^[2]

 

If you have a poisoning emergency, call 1-800-222-1222.

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