Know Thine Enemy
Nature is not out to kill you - Don't Panic
But first, a short digression …
I have learned a new (to me) word. Bimble, defined thus:
(chiefly Britain) A gentle, meandering walk with no particular haste or purpose.
I think most of our wildlife walking, and I hope yours, falls under the heading of “bimbling”. I almost always have a purpose - to see new things - but otherwise this is the way to proceed.
The Urban Dictionary adds: “… To amble in a friendly and harmless manner. It's not required to achieve nothing, though it is a frequent side effect. Bimbling can be made a little more business like with a slight hunch of the shoulders”.
Now, back to business …
Social media tends to emit a few too many cries of impending doom - often because someone has misidentified a plant that they have heard is “poisonous” and unless it is eradicated we will all fall prey to its evil intent to wipe us out. At best, this is needless panic, and stupidity at worst. It’s true, there are things out there that you probably don’t want to be consuming, but the few that you could encounter on a country ramble and which might actually kill you are remarkably few and far between. For the most part, nature is not “out to get us” so long as we are aware of what’s around us.
So, you are going for a walk in the nearby countryside, or a park. Mostly you can relax but if you are at all worried then ask yourself what are the “poisonous” plants that you might actually encounter on your wandering? It never does any harm to know what they look like but be aware that none of them are going to leap out at you. To be harmed you have to interact with them. It’s very much worth emphasizing to kids though - and I can’t remember how many times it was drilled into me by adults when I was small - that you never put things in your mouth without getting approval from a knowledgeable adult first.
“They passed a special display---marked by warning signs---of poisonous plants. Natalie had always been intrigued by the pendulous white angel's trumpets and the small, deceptively innocent-looking berries of deadly nightshade. "That one's a favorite in murder mysteries," she said. "Supposedly ten berries will kill a person. The poison's called atropine."
"The name comes from Atropos, one of the Three Fates," Peach said.
"Oh, now you're showing off again."
"What good is knowing stuff if you can't use it? Atropos was a bitch of a Fate. She could take you out by cutting the last thread of your life's tapestry." He made a snipping motion with his hand.
"I'll steer clear of her.”
― Susan Wiggs, The Lost and Found Bookshop
There is a frequent public misunderstanding of the word “poisonous”. Many feel that a poisonous thing will kill you, when more often than not it just makes you feel bad with a sore stomach, maybe some vomiting or diarrhea. There are certainly things to be avoided, but it’s rarely the end of the world if you do something silly. ‘Poisonous’ does not necessarily, or even often, mean deadly. Even the most potentially lethal plant will do you no harm if you leave it alone. Just walk by. If you don’t know what a plant is then perhaps don’t touch it and definitely don’t eat the berries. There are so many useful species identification apps for our smartphones these days that it is usually quite easy to find out what you are encountering right on the spot. Simple. If you do know its name and that it is safe then relax. Something like, blackberries for example, feel free to gorge yourself silly.
Anyway, here are a few of the most frequently encountered plants you should be aware of. The most common ones that you will certainly encounter around my neighbourhood and very probably yours too.
Wild parsnip
Wild parsnip, the roots of which you could eat if so minded with no risk, is an umbelliferous flowering plant as are many others. No, it isn’t giant hogweed, which is nasty but easily identified by its name - it really is tall, taller than you are, and no it isn’t Queen Anne’s Lace either which is actually wild carrot and perfectly benign. It’s not hard to identify as its flowers are a yellowish-green colour and its leaves are broad, twice as long as they are wide and with teeth on the edge. The leaves are fairly low down on the plant.
How could it harm you? If you don’t touch it, not at all. If you brush against it, again, you will be fine. If you break a stem and get some of the sap on your skin then you potentially have a problem. The sap contains a substance, furanocoumarin , that can cause a moderate to severe sunburn with blistering, skin discolouration, and/or rashes depending on your exposure and the individual sensitivity. These symptoms occur only after sensitized skin is exposed to sun so your immediate action if you do get sap on your skin is to cover it up, get in the shade and thoroughly wash the exposed are as soon as possible. As with a number of plant or insect threats, the first thing you should have done is to wear long sleeves and pants before approaching a stand of wild parsnip. It’s not nice, but it is not the end of the world and it is almost always avoidable.
Elderberries
Ever come across elderberry wine or cordial? “Champagne” made from elderberry flowers? Probably you have, so why is there the common perception that elderberries are bad for us?
It is true that elderberries contain varying but small amounts of cyanogenic glycosides as well as lectins and alkaloids. The amount varies with the elderberry species you have encountered - there are quite a few. These compounds are, though, also found in several foods that we eat every day. Lectins, for example, are what give some people trouble with uncooked beans, and there are cyanogenic glycosides in almonds and a few other common foods we don’t even think about not eating.
The secret is in cooking the elderberries before consuming them because that renders the noxious ingredients quite safe.
The American elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, (picture below) is the elderberry species you’re most likely to come across growing wild in North America. It contains fairly small amounts of the compounds in all parts of the plant, and qute negligible amounts in the berry. You may happen across the European elderberry, Sambucus nigra, in the wild or more likely in gardens and these do contain higher levels of cyanogenic glycosides. On the other hand, that is also the species most used to make the perfectly safe and palatable wines and syrups.
So a classic case of “don’t put it in your mouth”. Instead pick some, take them home to be cooked and then make what you will with them. Likewise, you might collect flowers and make a refreshen non-alcoholic drink with an amazing flavour and scent.
Poison Ivy
Now this one is quite a problem unless, like me, you are one of the 30% or more of people who seem to be naturally immune to its effects. (Quote): “To understand if it’s possible to be immune to poison ivy one most understand what causes the reaction. When people have a reaction to poison ivy they are having an allergic reaction to the oil Urushiol. Most people are allergic to Urushiol; it’s like any other allergy when you encounter it you have a reaction in this case most likely a rash. According to Dr. David Adams a dermatologist at Penn State Hershey about a quarter of the population is immune to poison ivy. “ The substance responsible for your pain is urushiol, an oily resin found in poison ivy as well as some other species. Contact with an urushiol-containing plant can lead to a couple of weeks of swelling, burning, and blisters - remedy, again, long sleeves and pants. What you don’t touch can’t hurt you. Note though that this sometimes dramatic response is an allergic response and not caused by a poison.
Identifying poison ivy is worth spending a bit of time to understand as there is quite a lot of it in the wild - certainly around where I live near Montreal. You will see from the picture below that the plant has compound leaves with each leaf being composed of three leaflets. In each set of leaflets, the middle leaflet has a longer stem than the two side leaflets. The stem on the side leaflets can be so small as to be almost invisible. The stems of the two side leaflets are always directly opposite of each other.
Not many good things to say about poison ivy, but it’s easy to avoid if you look where you are going. On the other hand many birds, including cedar waxwings, woodpeckers, American robins, various Warblers and others, will eat the berries from these plants in the fall and winter. Given our winters, any berries to be found by birds and mammals are desirable. You probably don’t want it in your garden but out in the woods, just pass by and think of the wildlife it will nourish.
Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
Altogether less of a problem than some plants as you would need to eat the berries to suffer - and to suffer what is in the species name: “cathartica” - a cathartic substance is one that purges, often dramatically, the contents of your GI tract. Not fatal but highly unpleasant.
There are several species of Buckthorn but the one you will most likely encounter is this one. It is not a native North American species but my goodness it likes the good life it has found here and is widely to be seen crowding out less robust native species. In particular, its roots secrete substances into the soil that inhibit the growth of other plants nearby. Bad for people and bad for the environment … but at least you can touch it safely. Just never, ever eat the berries.
Flora, Fauna and Funga
Long ago when I, and perhaps you, were studying biology the fungi were usually treated as part of a botany course. More recently the Fungi have been split off into a separate Kingdom of their own. Fungi are not plants.
We are accustomed to taking about Flora and Fauna - today we have to become used to speaking of Flora, Fauna and Funga.
This has been explained as follows:
In life sciences, funga is a recent term for the kingdom fungi similar to the longstanding fauna for animals and flora for plants.
The Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in August 2021 called for the recognition of fungi as one of three kingdoms of life, and critical to protecting and restoring Earth. They ask that the phrase animals and plants be replaced by animals, fungi, and plants, and fauna and flora by fauna, flora, and funga.
The term funga had been used in the scientific literature before the later recommendation
Even I, a lad living in Dagenham of all places, had warnings of impending doom were I to eat berries etc. As the only berries that we were likely to see in those days were, perhaps, gooseberries in a war-time allotment, the warning was not necessary. However, years later I had Sons, and fields etc. They received the same dire warnings.