Handle With Care: 9 Potentially Harmful House Plants

[steven johnson]

Some plants when brought inside can be unexpected risks to children and pets: Here are illustrations of philodendron, caladium, english-ivy and hydrangeas. The article illustrates the others.

They're beautiful to look at and can help improve air quality, but some of the most prized house plants harbor some potentially harmful toxins.

California company offers to plant, weed and harvest your own backyard garden.As the weather turns chilly and you bring your plants indoors, bear in mind that some ornamental plants, if ingested in large enough quantities, can be poisonous to small children and pets.

The most likely victims, experts say, are children under 3 years old and smaller pets. Usually, smaller bodies are affected by smaller amounts of toxin.

Philodendrons

Caladium

English Ivy

Hydrangea

Jerusalem Cherry

Azaleas

Easter Lily

Poinsettias

Oleander
Handle With Care: 9 Potentially Harmful House Plants

[emilyg]

1. Good to know.

[elocs]

2. "Are poinsettias poisonous?"

http://www.essortment.com/all/arepoinsettias_rfpo.htm

For years we were warned that poinsettias – those beautiful red and pink flowering plants we display at Christmastime – were poisonous. Parents magazines, medical books and guides, and even doctors and veterinarians cautioned us to keep the beautiful plants out of the reach of children and pets for fear that they might nibble on the flowers or the leaves which were believed to be toxic. In fact, some books still indicate poinsettias are poisonous.

Thanks to more recent testing, however, it is no longer necessary to keep your beautiful poinsettia plants on high shelves and out of reach. The long-standing belief that poinsettias were poisonous has finally been proven to be nothing more than a myth – a false alarm.

According to a source at the Poison Control Center in Madison, Wisconsin, most of the fear originated from the death of one child in Hawaii in 1918 who was believed to have eaten a poinsettia plant
. However, experts are no longer sure this death really had anything to do with the ornamental plant.

In fact, a research study conducted at Ohio State University in more recent years reveals that poinsettias are not truly poisonous at all. The study conclusively proved that all parts of the plant are non-toxic. Today the National Capital Poison Center in Washington, DC and poison control centers across the country list the poinsettia as a non-poisonous plant.