SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN II

 REVIEWING NON-POISONOUS PLANTS

IS THIS SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN A POISONOUS PLANT?

IT IS A SPURGE: A EUPHORBIA. Just one of more than 1600 species growing world-wide. These include Crown ofThorns and the Christmas Poinsettia. Only a few are attractive enough and hardy enough for Ontario gardens. For the most part the others must be considered as unwelcome weeds.

If, by Snow on the Mountain they mean Euphorbia marginata it’s a bit over the top to state that the plant is ‘poisonous to humans’. Poisonous to me suggests death or serious injury not a skin rash however unwelcome. It is not a common reaction. In all my years I recall only one person who developed a skin rash from a Spurge and it was not Euphorbia marginata.

  I can think of no particular reason why this one species has been singled out from so many. Since someone apparently thinks that it is worth mentioning it would be helpful to add a few more common names. Gardeners are just as likely to find this annual plant as Summer Icicle or Icicle Plant. Even more informally I’ve heard it called Ghost Weed. It would be even better of course to call it Euphorbia marginata. Please don’t call it ‘poisonous to humans’ when the only treatment needed is sudsy hot water.

( Serious damage could result if you get the caustic white sap in your eye which does call for a cautionary note.)

   White-edged plants are usually a variety of a plain green species; not so in this case. Euphorbia marginata is the species. It self-seeds and can appear under the greenhouse bench or in other pots and around the garden.
   A skin rash may not be a trivial matter to those who are sensitive but to label it as a poisonous plant is to make a mountain out of a molehill.

SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN

Reviewing some non-poisonous plants.

Which Snow on the Mountain is intended by Sick Kids’ Hospital in their Information for Families – Plant Safety?

 We are told that a plant with that name is ‘known to be poisonous to humans’. When you enter Snow on the Mountain in a search engine you will find that there are two quite different plants: Aegopodium podagraria and Euphorbia marginata. Which one is supposed to be harmful? Perhaps it’s both. We are not given the scientific name and so must check on each of them.

Snow on the Mountain is not the commonest of common names for Aegopodium podagraria since you are more likely to find it being called Gout Weed, Bishop’s Weed, Ground Elder or even Herb Gerard. It is a native of southern Europe that was taken north by the Romans for its value as an early spring vegetable; as early as February in Britain. This would have been the all-green variety and not the green and white form as we know it today. When the plant flowers like those of Queen Anne’s Lace you will recognize its’ kinship to parsley and carrot. The common name Gout Weed is perhaps a corruption of Goat Weed. The genus name Aegopodium means Goat’s Foot. The specific epithet podagraria refers to the big toe, a common site of gouty arthritis. We do need and depend on the scientific name for every plant but there is no rule to ensure that the name is apt. In this case the plant has nothing to do with gout nor goats. Its' naming is a sorry mess.

     I can hardly leave the subject without mentioning that it is a persistent perennial that will be almost impossible to be rid of as each small piece of root becomes a vigorous new plant. It is a palatable vegetable although now quite overlooked and no longer thought of in that regard. It is not poisonous.

 So, if this is not the ‘poisonous’ Snow on the Mountain what about Euphorbia marginata?

(See my next blog spot) You might also go back to my article published in May 2011, CROTONS AND OTHER SPURGES.