THEY ARE NOT SUGARPLUMS

Atropa belladonna
It is difficult to say Nightshade without coupling it with Deadly. The words seem joined at the hip. Deadly Nightshade does not grow wild in Canada. The late summer red-fruited vine that sprawls over the shrubbery in countryside or garden is Bittersweet Nightshade or Climbing Nightshade. The familiar wild plant is a tomato and I would prefer to call it Wild Tomato rather than any kind of Nightshade. Bittersweet Nightshade or my Wild Tomato is Solanum dulcamara. The so-called Deadly Nightshade is Atropa belladonna: a quite different genus. Both plants are included at the rank of Family, the Solonaceae, but so are Petunias.

There should be no confusion in identifying these plants in flower or in fruit. The flower of Wild Tomato has five swept-back purple petals and a pointed nose-cone of yellow anthers. The drooping clusters of berries are green ripening to bright red.

The flowers of Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna are bell-shaped and will partly enclose the developing black berry. The baleful tones of Atropa add to their malevolent reputation. The flower colour is shades of brownish purple like calves' liver. The berry is green ripening to shiny black on a star of persistant sepals. The fruits are never red at any stage. (Go to Google Images and you will see the usual mix-up.)

I have had a long aquaintance with Atropa. When I first went to school and could not see the blackboard, the ophthalmologist dropped Belladonna in my eyes to widen the pupils to aid in tests of my vision. All lights were halo-ed and scintilating as if it was suddenly Christmas. Cleopatra used that pupil dilating trick on her Antony to make herself appear even more alluring. With her blurred vision any man could be handsome although she never met a man she did not like.

Atropa belladonna has a very long history as a poison. I am told that the black berries are sweet and so does not warn you of its harmful effects. Fortunately it is not a plant that Canadians are likely to encounter but we should all be aware of its dangers.

Atropa belladonna berries are never red.
Accidental harm from Atropa is hardly likely. As a prepared drug or medicine hope has been held for a beneficial use such as treatments for asthma and hayfever. Claims are made for its value as antidote to other poisons such Sarin gas and the pesticide Malathion.It has been misused by those seeking recreational intoxication. Users report no pleasure but only delerium and the worst kinds of side effects.

WORTS AND RUMOURS OF WORTS

Very occasionaly, as in every three or four years, someone will ask,
"What is a wort ?"  For example, St.John's Wort.
(My talking encyclopedia says it should rhyme with hurt.)

In their quaint English way with names, where Cholomondeley is pronounced Chumly and Featherstonehaugh is Fanshaw, the family name St.John's becomes Sinjins. But you, old chap, already know all that.

I tell them that it is just an old word for a plant other than those that already have good names; trees, shrubs, vines, vegetables, herbs, etcetera. Most commonly used where some medicinal benefit is claimed for the plant or at least a usefulness. I would cite Lungwort, Motherwort, Spleenwort, St.John's Wort, Soapwort, Toothwort and Woundwort.

This then would compel me to explain the concept of the "Doctrine of Signatures". The 'state of the art' medical practice 500 years ago as formulated and taught by the Swiss physician Paracelcus. The idea was that the Almighty had put a sign or 'signature' on certain plants to show how they were to be used for our benefit. Grey splotches on the leaves of Pulmonaria, the Lungwort, indicated a treatment for damaged lungs and all things pulmonary. I don't know what lungs look like but any splotches on mine would be more likely be brown. I'd rather not think of the health of my liver and which of two quite different plant forms I should use. Some publishers still don't know the difference as we can see from a recent book on Herbs. They describe the pretty woodland wildflower and then illustrate it with the non-flowering spore-producing weed of greenhouse benches and old pots that are both called Liverwort.

Visual indicators are not apparent to me in Motherwort, Soapwort and Woundwort but they apparently have earned the suffix for some claimed value or worth. Hold the leaf of St.John's Wort, Hypericum perforatum to the light and note the pinprick translucent holes that are imagined as the pores of our skin and only a fool would not realize the value of Hypericum for all things dermatological. I very foolishly thought that St.John's Wort combatted depression. Perhaps it is for those who are depressed at their wrinkles being a sign of aging.

The toxicity that results from consuming Hypericum perforatum (also called Klamath Weed) is an extreme sensitivity to ultra violet rays and a dangerous sunburn. If Sick Kids' Hospital staff don't know; let me tell them. Humans do not eat St.John's Wort. Pasturing cattle might. The white areas of a cow would be most sensitive to sunburning and be even worse on bare spots like the eyelids, muzzle and udders.

If this cooperage scouring list of plants 'known to be poisonous to humans' is the medical 'state of the art' in the 21st century; then I'm depressed.
The old word has been revived in the name of Harry Potter's school, Hogwart Academy although it is spelled a little differently.

One variety that will always be with us and never in short supply is the worrywort.

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT

Jerusalem Cherry is not from Jerusalem
and it is not a Cherry.   Hence the name.
It is a Tomato, Solanum pseudocapsicum ; although the geneology is a bit muddled.

Popular around Christmas for the bright red berries contrasting with dark green foliage; they are also called Winter Cherry. After the December activities, the plants most usually get discarded with the tinsel, although with proper care and a good pruning in Spring, you could keep it attractive for a number of years. It is just not easy growing tomatoes indoors.

Winter Cherry needs the sunniest window and dependable steady moisture. The recurved petals are white or pale blue. The berries start green, ripening through yellowish before becoming cheerily red like Santa's suit.

How ever one celebrates the Winter Solstice ; as the Long Night, Christmas or Yule, Hanukkah or Dong Zhi, it is quite often a merry botanical time, featuring Tannenbaums, Cedar boughs, Holly, Ivy, Mistletoe and the Yule Log ; to whose ranks we can happily accept
 Jerusalem Cherry as a bright and cheerful ornamental.

   At Loblaw's, Sobeys's, Zehr's and most food suppliers you will see ranks and banks of these attractive plants that are bought and sold by the tens of thousands continent-wide as Christmas gets closer.

   Don't do a Google search on them. Those doom-sayers and nattering nabobs of negativity describe Jerusalem Cherry as if it was deadly.

  I wish they would stop it. When refering to Solanum as Nightshade it quickly becomes Deadly Nightshade which is Atropa not Solanum. I could remind them that their Housecat whether Persian, American Shorthair or Sphynx is in the same family as the Bengal Tiger.

    Winter or Jerusalem Cherry are meant only as ornamentals.
They are not a food item. Adults can take care of themselves but do protect the children.
The berries are not deadly but a few could cause an upset stomach. More than a few and you will be Squeezing the Charmin'.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

The lady approached me with every retail workers' favourite question.

Do you work here ? she accused.

Reluctant to confess, I admitted only, Good morning Madame. Can I help you ?

What annuals do you have ? she threatened.

Annuals ? Well, yes we do have some annuals. Not a lot.

Then name some. You do work here don't you ? she tolerated.

We have Sweet Peas.

They're nice, but not today. Anything else ?

There's Kochia, I headscratched.

Never heard of it.

Looks kinda like (This place came highly recommended by some highly recommended people, she bridalpathed.) a young cypress or cedar. In the fall they go bright red. Some people call them Burning Bush, I kindled.

Sounds ghastly. What else ? You do work here don't you ? She looked over around and through me. There was no one.

Marigolds. We have lots of Marigolds. Great colours. Orange and brown and yellow.

And ? Citrus and rust and near butter. And ? There's tangerine and squash and pumpkin.

I'm asking for annuals not vegetables. Don't be smart with me young man.

Winning me over completely.

You do work here don't you ? She swivelled, but there was only me.

Herbs, I grasped. We have herbs. There's a couple of annuals in our herb collection.

Basil's an annual and so is Sweet Annie, I cringed. But more like vegetables, I quickened.

You don't seem to know much. Do you always work here ?

Where's that Paul Zammit when you really need him ?

BAUBLES, BANGLES AND BEANS

Information for Families - Plant Safety is a publication from the Ontario Poison Centre and Sick Kids' Hospital. A mere list of names that you may or may not recognise. All 'known to be poisonous to humans'. That's all you get. A name and an admonition. As information , it's not much. Does everybody know what Jequirity Beans are. I am a professional plantsman and I didn't know. They are the same as Rosary Pea that you will see further down in the list. Are you any the wiser ?

The beans or peas don't grow in Canada so it is not a plant that I should have been expected to know. Since they are quite pretty they often get strung on a thread or otherwise to make a necklace or as earrings. These can be purchased cheaply in the Caribbean and elsewhere. Returning vacationers who get a close inspection at the border will lose their souvenirs since they are not allowed in Canada. (If you have some other botanicals you may not be either.)

When parents have Internet access they can do their own research since the Poison Control Centre is being so parsimonious. Not everyone can easily do that. They might have given us a short description :-

 Small (3 to the inch) shiny bright red beans that are jet black at one end.

When you read this and recognise them; I hope you are not saying, "Those sound like the ones on the bangle that the baby is gumming on RIGHT NOW !

A colour photo' would have been nice.

The scientific name is Abrus precatorious. Precatory refers to pius praying, don't  you know? and the reference is to the practice of using the beans as a rosary, hence Rosary Pea.

You now know what they look like; so do avoid them or we will all be praying for you.

A SUBURBAN MYTH

Bittersweet Nightshade
Solanum dulcamara










In July 2010, a letter  in a newspaper caught my eye, as things botanical usually do. The subject was bittersweet nightshade, a climbing vine with small but beautiful flowers designed like a hurtling missile. The five swept-back rich purple petals and the nose cone of yellow anthers that meet in a sharp point sponsors my aeronautical imagery. Alexander Calder would have drooled over the balanced poise of their bright red berries in a green cup, gracefully suspended like carmine teardrops on a bronze wire.

Others do not see them quite like that but as an unwanted weed with "extremely poisonous" fruit; which appears to be the view of our letter writer. He was drawing attention to an evergreen hedge that was carrying a heavy crop of Bittersweet Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara. He suggested that the owner or the Parks department should remove them for the safety of the children going to a nearby school. He deserves credit for his concern but he knows and I know, as we have all known for generations that the berries are not poisonous.

Why do we persist in perpetuating these suburban myths ?

The newspaper editor went on the Internet to check and sure enough they were deemed to be toxic and very dangerous to children. How valuable and convenient the Blogosphere has become. You now merely have to search for an answer: find one that you like: and go with that.

If the berries are "extremely poisonous" as he asserts, a letter is a rather slow response. Should he not have summoned police, fire and ambulance or at least had the area cordoned off with yellow tape?

My strongest argument for believing that the fruits are harmless (apart from my own public consumption as I display just how smart I am) is the total absence in our parks and playgrounds of dead and dying toddlers.

An American professor of botany was lecturing on the Nightshade family which includes Tomato, Potato and Green Peppers among 3000 species world-wide. In this talk he was addressing those that can be found growing wild in the countryside such as Bittersweet Nightshade. He told his pupils that the fruit and foliage of Black Nightshade were poisonous. The flowers are white but the berries are black. A young man from Iowa spoke up and said that his family and their neighbours ate the fruit of Black Nightshade all the time. The teacher said he must be wrong as they are well-known 'to be poisonous to humans'. It is a credit to the teacher that he tells this story against himself as he later identifies the species and the truth of the mans' claim. The berries were enjoyed not only in Iowa but in Nebraska where they also used the 'dreaded' foliage like spinach ! Back to the chalkboard.

The Royal Horticultural Society (of all people) makes the same error in Index of Garden Plants where they describe Solanum dulcamara as highly toxic and call it Deadly Nightshade. The RHS is in error but I cannot blame people that quote such an esteemed source.

PIPPA'S SONG

(Google Image)

SINGING THE PRAISES OF CHRISTMAS ROSE

   I had just arrived in the range of perennial greenhouses where the staff were busily stocking the shelves with the 3000 varieties that this large nursery carries. It was mid April and I had entered through the Hosta aisles with over 200 different kinds looking so healthily splendid as those in the garden will be now that the rain has cleared the last of winter's snow.
   The air was fresh and clean and you could smell the awakening soil. Freshly showered and in a laundered shirt, with crisp creases in my pants I felt solid in my safety boots.

   I had been mouthing some half-remembered Browning...
   the year's at the spring...day's at the morn...the lark's on the wing...something,something...God's in his heaven all's right with the world.
  Then I heard a woman's voice calling to her friends that had gone a little ahead. "Don't touch these. They're deadly poisonous." " You mean the Christmas Rose?"   " Yes, she confirmed, the Helleborus." My crisp shirt wilted and my shoulders slumped , "What now? Where are people getting this stuff?   I had read  Hellebores' lore and medical history years ago and scoffed, but this 'poison plant' business was no longer a laughing matter.     Christmas Rose and Lenten Rose are not on the Sick Kids' list and I wondered how they had missed them. The four ladies shopping that morning were teachers who were being allowed to plant some perennials at the school. With the small sum of money provided they were also given a list of plants that would not be safe for children. They had come equipped with an Index Plantorum Prohibitorum.  What a way to start the day.

   Helleborus had been used medicinally but was abandoned as causing more harm than good along with other discredited practices such as bleeding and cupping and constant purging.
   Before refrigeration and other food-handling safety measures people were forced to eat things that would be a public scandal today. Rotting meat, stinking fish and putrid vegetables, that when they churned in your gut you were happy to get their residue out of your body through one end or the other. The use of purges and routine enemas were accepted as normal. Much of our folk knowledge of poisonous plants derives from those dismal days.

   The chemicals in Helleborus include a digitalis-like component as we find in Foxglove. You will have to read my story The Case of the Dorset Boy to realize how much it takes to create even a sub-lethal dose.
 How ridiculous.
   To make a case against Christmas Rose the minutest facts have to be stretched beyond breaking point. Nothing and nobody eats the thick evergreen leaves of Hellebore.
   You will not find Christmas Rose growing wild in these parts (Wouldn't that be nice?)   BUT, just maybe in Europe where they are native, cattle might eat them.  Even having only a bovine brain cattle don't touch them. BUT,BUT. Supposing that the Hellebores are not in the pasture but in a hay field and get harvested with the grasses and then fed to the cows?
   In that case if you are a neighbour to such a careless farmer I would suggest that you don't buy his milk. It is well known that drinking such contaminated milk will give you the 'runs'.   Is there anything else you would like to know ?

There are Furies at the Bottom of my Garden.

THERE ARE FURIES AT THE BOTTOM OF MY GARDEN

Go past the garden shed and then go straight ahead .You will know them at once by their snaky hair and the blood dripping from their eyes as they watch me cultivate my poisonous plants. Those that blister, itch and sting are the mildest of my sins. And I know that I will not go unpunished. I am watched by their baleful eyes as I plant peonies and periwinkle and potatoes and peaches.

Oh yes, peaches. Did no one tell you ? Whether it is in Dr. McGillicuddy's Peach Schnapps or a small cube of the fruit from a rip-top can, peaches are deadly. Peaches can cause anaphylactic shock which could be fatal. The young man who insisted that holly berries were poisonous believed that story readily enough as he himself suffered from the poisonous peach syndrome.

As far as I know, he is still with us but can no longer indulge in Fuzzy Navels.

One eejit who thought that he was smarter than the rest of us and obviously liked apples, made a collection of the seeds until he had a cupful. He sat down to enjoy this crunchy treat and never got up again.
 China now supplies the world with most of its' apples and with the southern hemisphere shipping north we can have them any time. I enjoyed them more as a seasonal treat and before I was warned about the seeds. But I'm so 20th century.

A seasonal harvest that I always anticipated was Ontario's largesse of Sweet Cherries but not with the same keenness now that I know about their content of prussic acid. My vegetable garden gets the same rigorous inspection and I did so enjoy onions, until I learned better. No more lettuce for me either, whether from Chile, Mexico, California or my own garden. Should you doubt me you can check this out in a pretty little book from England titled Plant Alert : A Garden Guide for Parents. The author obviously knows her stuff. She uses the correct scientific name, Lactuca sativa and shares with us her horticultural experience as she explains that all parts of lettuce are hazardous " especially the milky sap or latex." To guard against any possible misunderstanding we are provided with a good photograph of young lettuce in the rows of her garden.
  Knowing what she does it is surprising that she keeps growing them. It is amazing the lengths people will go to in the name of science. I have her book and there's more, lots more. This is just the tip of the Iceberg.

The strangest things infuriate my Furies. I did not plant the Creeping Buttercup or the Quack Grass but it appears that I am to be held responsible for their toxic roots. I mean, who knew ?

FLAG THAT IRIS

In the hands of two medical doctors and a noted ethnobotanist the new edition of the A.M.A. Handbook is a welcomed improvement on the original. It is still not without error. I question the need to include plants that should only concern a farmer and a large- animal veterinary surgeon.

When a caring mother sees Tall Bearded Iris included as a poisonous plant but does not read the text thoroughly and critically, she might think it necessary to get rid of her garden plants for the safety of her child.

Tall Bearded Iris, Iris germanica are very hardy, easily cared for, long-lived perennials that deserve a spot in any sunny garden. It would be a shame if you couldn't do so on doctor's orders.

. The other Iris that they cite is the Yellow Flag, Iris pseudacorus which is usually container- grown as a water plant. It is European but is now well established in our wetlands.
Sweet Flag is Acorus calamus and not an Iris; as far as I can see it has a spotless record and no outstanding warrants. One very old Cree claimed to know something about Sweet Flag but he would not say what it was.

When you read the text that surrounds a photograph of Iris germanica , you are told that the roots and leaves are toxic although the toxin is not known. Often accused as causing stomach irritation yet human cases have never been reported .
A competent Crown Prosecuter would never let this case go to trial.
Nothing further is said regarding the Yellow Flag, perhaps it could be a problem for farmers.   It is not clear.
Blue Flag Iris, Iris versicolor which may be the stylized floral heraldic on the Quebec flag, (speaking of flags) is not mentioned in the Handbook. It does get a mention occassionally by other writers, as causing harm to calves or year- olds. Well, I have only heard of one case but that would be more than enough for Sick Kids' et al. They condemn all Iris.
.

Yellow Flag                              Blue Flag

HORSE SHIT

HORSE CHESTNUTS ARE NOT POISONOUS.
Read many books or use any search engine and you might believe that they were. They are rarely eaten and do not compare with Sweet Chestnuts that the French call Marron; famously in marron glacé. American Sweet Chestnuts are known for 'roasting o'er an open fire' when Jack Frost is nippin' at your nose.

     The genus name for Horse Chestnut and for the Buckeyes is Aesculus. At the family level it is kin to citrus, mangoe, maple and mahogany.
 Sweet Chestnut is Castanea and related to beech and oak.
 The nuts of Horse Chestnut are scarcely edible and would probably never be eaten unless in times of famine. They are less than choice as a food item but they are not poisonous. Children playing the ancient game of 'conkers' don't have the dentition to chomp chestnuts unless they have already mastered the art of chewing marbles.

Native Americans ate the nuts of Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra once the nuts were cooked. They would roast and peel them, mashing the flesh into a nutritional meal called Hetuk.

American farmers believe that Buckeyes are poisonous to cattle. Maybe so, since cows have no one to cook for them. If I was a farmer I too would be concerned about Buckeye nuts. These animals are expensive. Prices vary, but the last I checked a beef cow was worth around $1,500 and a dairy cow of good breeding could cost you between $1.800 and $3.000.   
Humans on the hoof are in over-supply and worth very little, if anything.

   Around the year 1900 a foreign fungus entered North America and within 40 years many millions of American Chestnut were gone, almost to extinction. Almost but not quite. Not yet.
 Mel Tormé's favourite chestnut is now 'off the menu' and has been replaced by Spanish and Chinese Chestnuts.

First we lost the American Chestnut then the American Elm and now we are losing the Ash to the Emerald Ash Borer. The 'Starry Night' Long Horn Beetle is a threat to many tree species. It is regretable that the public appear to know only a few familiar names such as, Crimson King Maple, Austrian Pine and  Colorado Spruce when there are so many handsome trees to choose from. As we begin to replace the Ash and more we must diversify and plant as many different genera and species as possible and avoid a monoculture that could all fall victim to the next plague that visits us.

Now that you know that the Horse Chestnut is not poisonous and that humans at least have nothing to fear from Buckeyes you can now consider them in your selectiion. They merit your attention.

Aesculus glabra
Ohio Buckeye



Aesculus pavia
Don't know why the Red Buckeye is called the Friday Flower
I'll take it any day of the week

THE CASE OF THE DORSET BOY

     In seeking a genuine case of a child being poisoned by Foxglove, I did not pursue any that mentioned Digoxin or Digitoxin as I believed that those would only concern the pharmaceutical tablet or the pediatric liquid.
  This was not what I was looking for; I wanted to learn of a poisonous interaction between a child and a plant in the garden. In many instances even when refered to as Digitalis it would once again be the pharmaceutical.
   Until I discovered the case of the Dorset boy. The scientific paper that was written on this case had a title that was perfectly clear.    
     "Digitalis Poisoning Due to the Accidental Ingestion of Foxglove Leaves"
(Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 5:217 (1983) Raven Press N.Y. )
Michael Simpkiss, pediatrician. Poole General Hospital, Dorset UK
and David Holt, Poison Unit, Guy's Hospital.  London UK

     It is not a pretty story, although I will say at once that given the circumstances it has a reasonably happy ending. The boy was fine.

   The 7 year old child is described as being severely mentally retarded.
He was diagnosed as having a genetic disorder termed epiloia or tuberous sclerosis that causes small benign tumours to form on various body organs.

   He was epileptic for which he received two different drugs three times a day.
He had pica.  The word pica was entirely new to me and since it may be new to you I will explain.
   PICA :  A pattern of behavior distinguished by the ingestion of non-food items such as dirt, sand, animal faeces, flaking paint or wallpaper and other papers. The word refers to Pica pica the European Magpie.

   The boy had been left unattended in the garden. When he was next observed he was producing green vomit and continued do so for 24 hours before he was taken to a hospital. His pulse rate was a low 48 beats a minute compared to
70/80 beats on previous admissions. The symptoms all suggested Foxglove ingestion which was confirmed by testing for digitoxin levels in the blood plasma. He had stopped vomiting after 48 hours and began to make a steady recovery. Tests had shown the presence of extremely high quantities of Digitalis indicating that a considerable amount of Foxglove had been consumed.
 Digitalis slows the heart and when it slows to an extreme you're dead.

     Have I been wise in relating these facts ? I am not sure. I do believe that silence can be the very worse kind of lie. The Case of the Dorset Boy is an extreme and very rare event. It is not something that will happen to your healthy child finding delight in a beautiful flower.
    A child who explores the taste of Foxglove will find that the leaves are furry and extremely bitter with nothing to appeal. A happy child would simply spit it out. Garden centres can continue to sell  Foxgloves with clear conscience and gardeners can take pride in their  plants.
We should be so lucky as to live where Foxgloves are a prominent feature of the countryside.


  

CAUTIONARY TALES

We are repeatedly told that children have died from contact with Foxglove, Digitalis purpurea and I cannot imagine something more tragic. With each retelling the stories become more frightening. Like the Broken Telephone game where a child's puke becomes a poisoning, morphing into a fatality, as each writer strives to be readable and avoids obvious plagiarism by putting the story into their own words. With each repetition the story gets worse and worse.

I have tried to follow such tales to the original case, only to see them disappear just as I thought that I was getting close. We are told many times of fatalities where children supposedly drank water from a vase of Foxglove flowers. I thought that this story would be validated in a paper that was published in the highly respected Pediatrics. (1974;54;374) by none other than Kenneth F. Lampe co-author of the A.M.A. Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants. (1985)

The article, Systematic Plant Poisoning in Children is most disappointing since once again no actual case is cited. He avers that children have been fataly poisoned by drinking water from a flower vase. He does not tell us who the children were or if they were babies, toddlers or older infants. I want much more than that. Where and when did this happen ? Were the plants correctly identified ? Who was the attending physician ? Were remedies attempted ? What was the cause of death as declared on the Death Certificate ? He answers none of these questions. He is the famous doctor (Ph.D) and toxology expert and we are expected to take his word for it.

In fact there was no vase of flower water. It is a notional vase in which he not only imagines Foxglove but Oleander and Lily of the Valley too. We are being told a cautionary tale and being taught by parable. Now the story is being repeated and elaborated on by every Poison Centre in the English-speaking world and unthinking writers everywhere.

QUACK QUACK

HOLLY: The Genus Ilex.
If my workplace colleagues had known what was coming they might have warned, "Don't get him started." I had been overheard telling people that Holly berries were not poisonous and was soon visited by someone saying, " I think you were a bit fast there Tom when you were asked about Holly berries; they are poisonous"... and presented me with the Sick Kids' Hospital slanderous list.
 I went ballistic, as my colleagues knew I would. "Holly berries are NOT poisonous" I sputtered. " The folks at Sick Kids' Hospital are wrong."
 "Oh sure, you're right and everyone else is wrong. Who are people going to believe ?" He was right about that of course; people would take the word of a world-famous hospital over that of a mere garden centre employee. I'm still furious.

The book in my own quite extensive library that I depended on was Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada (1964) by John M. Kingsbury professor of botany and lecturer in poisonous plants at Cornell University, N.Y. In this text written for students of medical and veterinary science, Holly is never mentioned or referred to: not once.

The American Medical Association Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants (1985) states that the fruit is poisonous and gives as a reference a paper by Rodrigues TD et al: Holly berry ingestion: Case report. Journal of Veterinary and Human Toxicology, 1984.

Poisonous Plants of Canada (1990) tells us that the only documented case of poisoning was a mild one that occured after two young children ate "a handful" of berries (Rodrigues et al.1984)

Subsequent texts that came my way all refer me to Rodrigues et al.

Identical twin two year old girls were found eating berries from American Holly, Ilex opaca. We are not told by whom but presumably their mother who, believing that the berries were poisonous gave both girls a teaspoon of Syrup of Ipecac and a drink of water. ( Rodrigues says 15 ml of Ipecac and 120 ml of water. That sounds more clinical and impressive in a scientific paper.)

It was much as I had previously imagined. This was not a case of holly berry poisoning at all, and the papers' title should have been Ipecac poisoning : Case report.

Both girls continued to vomit, voiding loose stools that progressed to watery diarrhea and one became drowsy. Of course they did, they had both been given Ipecac syrup. As this very paper clearly states, "Because drowsiness is so common following Ipecac-induced emesis, however, we cannot confirm a definite causal relationship to the holly ingestion". The girl who became drowsy was taken to her pediatrician who said she was fine and sent her back home.

A second edition of the A.M.A. Handbook was released in 2007 to replace the original version whose cover was no longer appropriate. The book's back cover carried a strong endorsement for Syrup of Ipecac with instructions for its' use. Now, in a complete reversal of policy the emetic is no longer recommended. Where mothers might once have been rebuked by their pediatrician if Ipecac was not in the family medicine chest, are now told that it should not be used and should not be kept at home.

(I don't think that you will be able to buy it at the pharmacy today.)

The new edition of the Handbook was a perfect opportunity for the A.M.A. to repudiate the Rodrigues paper as they repudiated Syrup of Ipecac but they still give it as a reference. However, to make matters worse Oregon Holly is now included under Ilex. Adding the N.Y. Botanical Garden to the publishing roster has not helped the fact checking. Oregon Holly or Oregon Grape Holly is not even in the same family. It is not poisonous either. The blue berries are eaten fresh or used in jellies.

The Rodrigues paper has all the hallmarks of a scientific paper.

It has two well-qualified co-authors. It was published in a prestigious and appropriate journal where it was available for peer review.

It talks like a scientific paper. It walks like a scientific paper : but it is a canard.

If the mother of the twins had not been taught that holly berries were poisonous then this unfortunate incident would never have happened.