In article ,
(Sarah Sinclair) wrote:

Trish K. wrote in message
. ..
On 17 Mar 2003 07:48:15 -0800, (Sarah
Sinclair) wrote:


Hi
A lot of people don't realise that Poinsettia is poisonous, regards
Sarah

We need shrink wrap everything. Thanks, I almost ate the pointsettia.

Now I'm off to stew the rhododhendron.

Actually that is a mistake, they are not poisonous and this is just a
myth. But you only need to put 'poinsettia' into the search engine and
there are plenty of sites to tell you all about them and how to get
the best out of them.

[another recycled post:]

Right, it is a deeply ingrained myth that poinsettias are toxic. It is so
ingrained that it gets tossed onto dozens of "poisonous plants lists" with
no one bothering to check to find out if there is actually any toxic
alkaloid in this plant, & even veterinarians will state with straight
faces that poinsettias will kill cats or dogs, though no veterinarian on
earth has ever seen this happen because it can't happen.

My suspicion is the myth originally transferred from Christmas mistletoe
(mildly toxic) & English holly (much more toxic), which are properly
worried about. The currently prevailing theory is that the myth began in
Hawaii in 1919, when a two year old child was found dead under a full
grown poinsettia tree, with a poinsettia leaf in her hand. The mature
plant also exudes an unpleasant white milk similar to that of toxic euphorbias,
which would tend to increase the belief in this myth once it got started.

This page:
http://swinfo.tamu.edu/poison/poisonousplants.htm
reports outcomes of numerous studies that found
poinsettias completely harmless.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/