In article ,
Mike Lyle wrote:
Nick Maclaren wrote:
[...]
Pyrcantha is a very close relative of hawthorn, and can be treated
the same way. There is also berberis, but B. vulgaris takes a
little while to establish (and then grows quite fast). Roses can
also be used to fill in gaps.

And most horses aren't stupid enough to eat poisonous plants, which
is why it is a myth that yew is as dangerous as is made out.

Still an' all, it's not a risk anybody should take: if they _do_ eat
it, the stuff is extremely and very rapidly toxic. The HMSO _British
Poisonous Plants_ 1968 (1976) says, "Yew is one of the very few
poisonous plants which animals will eat voluntarily at all times of
the year, and it is not necessary for them to be hungry before they
do so." Alarmingly, it also says, "It has already been decided by the
courts that where yew overhangs a neighbour's boundary and injures
his stock, the owner of the yew is liable in damages."

The latter is true, because of the former myth.

They rarely eat it, even when hungry. What isn't known is why some
animals do, sometimes. I have seen yew trees (with low branches)
in fields where cattle, sheep and horses had grazed for centuries.
The trouble with yew is PRIMARILY that publications like that one
copy the myth from each other.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.