Snake Berry in Toronto’s Sick Children’s list of poisonous plants meant nothing to me.
I’ve asked other plantsmen but they don’t seem to know the term either. When I ran it through the Google search engine it was identified as Actea rubra. News to me. I know the plant very well but I know it as Red Baneberry. That is the problem with common names. Sometimes they are only locally common.
Lots of plants have a number of common names and on occasion one common name is used for a few quite different plants.
The A.M.A. Handbook gives Snake Berry as yet one more name for Solanum dulcamara, otherwise known as Bittersweet Nightshade which, if I had my way would be Climbing Tomato. On doing some more checking I do see that they list Actea rubra as Snakeberry, one word not two.
Are you following me? Snakeberry is Actea and Snake Berry is Solanum.
I trust that all this squabbling over names does not bring lids to your eyes; it is not trivial. As parents are being told that these plants are poisonous it would be very helpful to have their scientific names.
Once we have established which plants we are talking about we can proceed to the matter of whether they are toxic. When you subject Red Baneberry, (Actea rubra) to chemical analysis it will show a high concentration of oxalic acid as we also find in rhubarb leaves and in lesser quantities, in many vegetables such as spinach. The word‘poison’is highly inappropriate. It takes excessive amounts or the accumulative effects of long-term usage to affect your health. The body handles oxalic acid by combing it with calcium to form calcium oxalate crystals which are processed by the kidneys and excreted in urine. Continued usage could result in calcium deficiency or to kidney stones
The bright red fruit of Actea rubra will be attractive to an exploring child who, quite naturally will want to discover if they are sweet and juicy. They will be disappointed and just as naturally will spit them out. Children, as I am sure you know, are fussy eaters with all their sensitive taste buds still intact. They do not readily poison themselves.
If anyone ever tells you they were killed by Snake Berry: do not believe them.
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