MORNING GLORIES

Do you know why Morning Glories are described as poisonous? Probably not if you are of my generation or equally naïve. Apparently it is widely known that the seeds of Ipomoea tricolor are easily brewed into a home-made hallucinogenic drug with similar effects to that of LSD. Ask Jeeves or go to your favourite search engine and you will find full instructions; where to buy seeds in bulk, how to grind, infuse and filter the brew. Easy as making coffee.Best known and most readily available varieties are, Heavenly Blue and Pearly Gates, should you care to know the colour of the crack of dawn flowers. If you think that you might enjoy a light fantastic trip, this could be just your cup of tea. Not for me thank you very much.

You will not learn any of this from Sick Kids’ Hospital publication “Information for Families – Plant Safety”. The promise in the pamphlets' title is unfulfilled since they provide no information whatsoever. We are told only that it is a plant ‘known to be poisonous to humans’. Since all of the plants on their list are questionable including many that should be blameless and the rest need rescuing from superstition, misunderstanding and gross exaggeration that I wonder if families find any value in it.

My constant criticism is the use of the word ‘poisonous’ without a modifier of any kind. It would be helpful to know if the plant toxins were deadly, mildly or slightly poisonous or if in fact it is an allergen which affects some but not others. Perhaps the plant effects are dermatological when it should be termed a skin-poison. There is a good modifier. Some explanations would be useful such as, ‘very unlikely to cause accidental poisonings but must be intentional and self-afflicted, usually resulting from people seeking an intoxicating ‘high ‘from ornamentals like Jimson Weed , Morning Glory or the prohibited Marijuana. This could be put more briefly as ‘Poisonous if misused’.

              “All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison.

              The right dose differentiates a poison …”           
Paracelsus (1493-1541)

The dose makes the poison. The Hospital pamphlet does say, ‘Some of these plants will not cause serious poisoning unless a large amount is eaten’. They could admit that a large amount might mean consuming by the bushel or tying someone down and force-feeding them.

Telling a concerned parent that Delphiniums, Lupins and Morning Glories are poisonous demonstrates a complete lack of any understanding of plants and of people. One might as well aggravate a sworn teetotaller by pointing out that there is alcohol in bread; which there is but not so that it is a matter of any importance or worth mentioning.

PINK, NOT BLUE

Ask any horticulturist or any gardener to describe the plant known as Periwinkle and you will be told that it is a wiry-stemmed, sometimes evergreen, sub-shrub with sky-blue flowers; known botanically as Vinca minor. The flowers of Periwinkle are famously blue but you can dare to be different and seek the wine-red or white. A dissenter might suggest Vinca major; a trailing type much used in hanging baskets and containers. This form with variegated green and white foliage is tender and used only as an annual.

    The pamphlet ‘ Information for Families-Plant Safety ‘ that the Poison Information Centre co-publish with Sick Kids’ Hospital does not provide botanical names. Families have to do a lot of guessing. In fact it is very short of information; they tell you nothing. In their list of ‘plants known to be poisonous to humans’ they make an exception for Periwinkle, (Vinca). The one and only time that you are given the plants’ botanical name, and they get it precisely wrong.

     If there is a Periwinkle that might be poisonous (by their standards, not by mine) it would be Madagascar Periwinkle. Admittedly, it was once Vinca rosea, so-named by the great Linnaeus but changed to Catharanthus roseus by the English botanist George Don. This name change is not recent. Don died in 1846.

     Medical staff at the hospital will know the therapeutic value of Madagascar or Rosy Periwinkle. Two potent chemicals derived from this plant are vincristine and vinblastine which became the drugs of choice in the treatment of childhood leukemia and Hodgkin’s disease.

     The concentration of active ingredients in Catharanthus is so low that that it takes more than 250 kilograms of leaves to make one 500mg therapeutic dose. Rather more than the few plants in your window box.

     Only an ill-informed smart Alec or Alicia would interpret the medicinal use of Rosy Periwinkle as cause for a public alarm and to call the plant poisonous. It is a joke. Our world-famous Hospital for Sick Children is poorly served by lending their name to this shabby list.

     Garden Centres now offer so many plant choices that Rosy Vinca has lost its’ once prominent place in our summer gardens. Putting aside the plants’ value as a pharmaceutical (It is now grown world-wide for that purpose) to look at the plants qualities as an ornamental: Madagascar Periwinkle shows its’ Indian Ocean origins by revelling in heat and humidity. The open five-lobed flowers can be rosy pink or white, usually with a red eye. Grown in the sunniest spot in the garden it has the look of a small roundish 60cm shrub and will produce flower clusters all summer. The attractive leaves are dark green with a noticeable mid-vein that combines as an attractive package.

I intend to help this fine plant overcome the unwarranted slurs it has suffered at the hands of the uninformed. I cannot recommend Rosy Vinca too highly.

     This is an annual to die for, if you will excuse the expression.

POISONOUS PEONIES. WHO KNEW?

According to the Ontario Regional Poison Information Centre, peonies are ‘not non-toxic’. Now there is a quibble if I ever heard one.

 The American Medical Association does not mention peonies in their Handbook of Poisonous or Injurious plants. Very few of the books in my growing library mention the peony; when they do it would be a casual remark that peonies have been used medicinally most usually in Chinese Medicine. Everything appears in the Chinese Pharmacopeia including bears gallbladder and powdered dragon bones and is not a resource that I would normally refer to.

     In a telephone query to the Poison Centre we were told that the toxic parts of peonies are the roots. This matches the advice in Chinese Herbal Medicine, (Daniel P. Reid (1990) distributed in Canada by Random House.) This cannot be where Sick Kids’ Hospital is getting their information, although it would explain a lot. The Chinese in fact, have nothing but good to say about peony roots. The skin of the tree peony root ‘has highly effective antiseptic action against a broad range of germs’. The whole root of the white peony is tonic to the blood and yin-energy. The red variety promotes circulation of the blood.

The Poison Information Centre warns that handling the roots can irritate the skin and eating them can cause diarrhoea and make you vomit. Quite right too. That’ll learn you. When the grandchildren visit be sure that the garden spade and digging fork are locked in the shed.

     The peony of southern Europe is Paeonia officinalis. The name does not refer to a modern office but that there was commercial trade in the plant as a medicinal herb. When you read between the lines and note how often it is recommended for increasing  blood flow; that the intention was ‘to bring on the menses’. In other words, to provoke an abortion. The Peony Formula is still well known and used in Chinese and in so-called traditional medicine.

     The staff at the Poison Information Centre did not mention this aspect and we did not bring up the subject with them.

DEATH BY MISADVENTURE

The death of Andre Noble, a young actor full of promise, was a tremendous shock.

Apparently his untimely death was due to aconite poisoning.

     So much has been said and written about Monkshood being deadly poisonous that we have come to believe that such stories belong to the myths of times past. A modern case shows just how tragically real and yet how rare an event this was. With about a 100 species of Aconitum growing around the world and a population of 6.3 billion humans or 6.4 by the time I get to the end of this sentence; one would expect that there would be many such deaths.

     The young actor died on July 30, 2004 at the age of 25 in the countryside that he enjoyed so much, near Centerville on Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland where he was born and raised.

     I turned to the 2007 edition of the AMA Handbook of Poisonous or Injurious Plants, but his case is not mentioned. No human poisonings involving the living plant are cited. We are told that all parts of the plant are toxic, especially the leaves and roots but that human exposures are ‘relatively uncommon’. ‘However these plants are utilized in some herbal products (e.g., chaunwu, caowu, fuzi.)’ There are six references to scientific papers that in each instance refer to the use or misuse of Aconitine preparations in Asian medical practise. In the West, as far as I am aware, it is used only in so-called alternative medicine and in labelled water as dispensed by homeopaths.

The one and only time that I have ever heard of a gardener, grower or florist being affected by Monkshoods is an incident that took place in England in 1993. A man who sold cut flowers in the streets of Salisbury and Southampton was hospitalized, due, it is believed to handling Aconitum. If I knew more than that I would tell you.

So, what of the tragic death of Andre Noble? He knew and enjoyed the outdoors. This was familiar territory to him. He grew up there. At the time of death his stomach contents showed that he had consumed wild berries and green vegetation. The Aconitum that grows wild in Newfoundland is not a native but is an escape from gardens; Aconitum napellus. As an intelligent well educated young adult with an interest in nature, he would know Monkshood and its’ deadly reputation. What happened?

Andre and his friends were exploring and foraging on a small island when he became ill. He died on the small boat that was taking him to where an ambulance was waiting. Victims of Aconitine poisonings who get immediate medical attention can expect to make a full recovery within 24 hours. It was not to happen here.

A sudden death from a common naturalized flower was so startling and so rare that many questioned whether some other factor was involved. He was a vegetarian with a known interest in natural foods. “He was really into health foods, herbs and nature. I was in Toronto a while ago and went to a few health stores with him.” said his father. Questions still remain on this puzzling case. The best that can be said is that the chances of such a freak accident being repeated are somewhat more than six billion to one.

HAVE A VERY BERRY XMAS

     Toronto’s Sick Kids’ Hospital lists Mistletoe as poisonous; of course they do. We must learn to disregard those spoilsports. I don't think that our Canadian Food Inspection Agency would let stores sell poisonous plants, Yuletide tradition or not.

      Most of us, even as untutored laymen have some understanding of the ‘placebo effect’. A patient seemingly experiences relief from symptoms and apparently benefits from the use of a prescribed medicine when in fact it is nothing more than a sugar pill. It is generally believed that such psuedopharmaceuticals really work but the reasons are still mysterious.

     Poison Control Agencies and people like me who write about ‘poisonous’ plants should now consider the ‘nocebo effect’.  Just as a patient obtains real benefit from a worthless pill when it is prescribed by a trusted physician or in a hospital setting, that the obverse could be equally true.

     Having been assured by a well-regarded authority that a plant part was poisonous someone might indeed show the unpleasant effects of poisoning from an innocuous and harmless source. The more trusted the authority, the stronger the nocebo response.

     If, as I assure you that mistletoe berries are not poisonous, why would they be listed as such? Most likely someone has heard that a substance found in the mistletoe plant is being used in the immediately discredited treatment of some cancers. As somebody once said, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. Still, I am aware that if you ‘search’ mistletoe you will be told that consumption of large quantities of leaves and stems can cause painful discomfort to the digestive system and probably diarrhea. Although it is beyond me how they could possibly know that, except perhaps by tests on animals.

     American Mistletoe is Phoradendron and an official symbol of the State of Oklahoma. All mistletoes are partial parasites (partial because they have their own chlorophyll) and live on many types of trees apparently without harming them.

   The Mistletoe of commerce is Viscum album and it will probably be English. It grows in continental Europe too but the English form is thought to be the best. It has lots of plump white berries that ship well and do not fall off in transit. The berries are not poisonous.

   The supply of English Mistletoe is now threatened. Nothing wrong with the mistletoe, they’re fine  Although the parasite can grow on many types of trees, in England their preference is the apple. So many orchards are now being lost to the urban sprawl of shopping malls and huge parking lots, that  mistletoes are losing their homes.

     Now that China is supplying the world with most of its' apples, it  appears that they will also be the source of this traditional Christmas decoration.      Shèng Dàn Kuài Lè.

I'M MAD AS HELL

    

     If you would like to make a small contribution to a healthier world, consider catering to the needs of butterflies and their caterpillars. A butterfly garden will not only provide great beauty from the plants, butterflies and hummingbirds which is reward enough but  give satisfaction in having done something worthwhile; a small penance for the many abuses that we have laid on our planet.

     In my home garden there is a dense planting of butterfly favourites with flowers for the imago and foliage for their larvae. Great magnets for enticing clouds of Monarchs, are forms of prairie Liatris. The 6 foot tall dense flower spikes of Meadow Blazingstar, Liatris ligulistylis and Kansas Gayfeather, Liatris pycnostachya bring in Monarch butterflies from miles around. That is fine for you and good for the adult/imago Monarch but does nothing for the caterpillar/larvae. Monarch caterpillars eat Milkweed and only Milkweed.

     If indeed, you want to do something truly worthwhile, beyond your own immediate pleasure, a butterfly garden needs foliage for the caterpillar. Carrot, dill or parsley is needed by the Black Swallowtail so I plant lots of parsley between the Agastache, Echinacea and the many milkweeds.
     The spectacular Giant Swallowtail is supposedly very rare in Ontario; nevertheless I am privileged to be visited by this rarity every summer, drawn to my garden by a Hop Tree, Ptelea trifoliata. Apparently this visitor from Florida can detect a solitary tree from a great distance. Cosmopolitan Painted Lady enjoys its’ world-wide distribution by not being so singularly fussy about the caterpillar food choices. A sure bet to bring the American Lady to set up home in your garden is by growing Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea

     Monarch Butterflies depend entirely on Milkweed of which there are many species and closely related plants from tropical America to as far north as 52 degrees. Monarchs returning each year from their Mexican winter roosts, fly ever further north in overlapping leapfrogging generations seeking Milkweed. They depend on it. In my garden there are Swamp Milkweed, Asclepius incarnata with pink flowers; a yellow form and a white. Asclepius tuberosa with pure orange flowers and shinier thicker leaves. Since the sap of this species is clear rather than white we call it Butterfly Weed not Milkweed. These are all good hardy perennials, but a Monarch Garden would not be complete without their top-of-the-list favourite; the Mexican annual sub-shrub, Asclepius curassavica known as Bloodflower. The bicoloured flowers come in scarlet and yellow or deep red and yellow. Both the Monarchs and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are daft about them.

 The most northern species is Common Milkweed, Asclepius syriaca found in abandoned fields, roadsides and ditches. It is not included in my garden proper but I am happy to know that it is close by.

     Toronto’s Sick Kids’ Hospital in 'Information for Families' tells us that Milkweed are ‘known to be poisonous to humans’. Now you know why I am as mad as hell. I guess that I would not be allowed to choke someone but perhaps I could give them a good shake.

    My butterfly garden delights me and I would like to see more gardeners enjoying swarms of Monarchs on their favourite Milkweeds. It does not help to have them labelled as ‘poisonous to humans’. Most people know that the caterpillar and hence the butterfly derives protection from birds by being highly distasteful; due to chemicals in the Milkweed. (The butterflies are not totally immune to these poisons but they have a high tolerance.) Listing them as poisonous plants is not a public service but a disservice and the lists’ authors a public nuisance.

NOTE: Neither the first or second edition (2007) of the American Medical Association Handbook of Poisonous or Injurious Plants mentions Milkweed.

A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING

    George Russell of York was an allotment gardener who developed a passion for Lupins. (My preferred spelling is Lupins rather than Lupines.) For more than 20 years he saved seed from the best plants and ruthlessly destroyed the others. He began with Lupinus polyphyllus but added some annual species and a shrub lupin and let the bees do the cross-pollinating. It seems reasonable though; that once he had produced a pink such as Chatelaine and the white Noble Maiden that open pollination would need to be avoided. Russell Lupins were a sensation at the 1937 Chelsea Flower Show.

    It is a crying shame that Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children calls them poisonous. They are not alone. You can find lupins on many such lists. Go to Nova Scotia Museum’s Poison Patch museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/lupin for more misleading facts and fictions. The page devoted to lupins immediately ropes-in black locust, laburnum and scotch broom. You must read carefully since the most serious of consequences apply to laburnum alone and those perils are greatly exaggerated. They do say that the greatest danger of lupin poisoning is to grazing livestock. There are a number of wild lupins growing in cattle country and is part of the animals foraging diet. Under some very rare circumstances lupins are said to cause ‘crooked calf’ disease. It is claimed that contaminated milk has caused birth defects in humans. I don't beleive that for a moment. 

    Although it might bring us to the same result, it is quite possible that it is not the lupin plant itself that is the cause but that a fungus growing on the lupin that is the real source of the toxin. Note too that the flower used to illustrate the page is not a weedy wild form but a cultivated hybrid which is deceitful or at least unhelpful.

    We have come a huge distance from George Russell’s beautiful flowers and we appear to have got totally lost along the way.