GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

K · 04-12-2006, 11:51 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

Sacha writes
On 4/12/06 21:45, in article , "K"
wrote:

Sacha writes
On 4/12/06 00:06, in article ,
"Duncan" wrote:

"luke" wrote in message
ups.com...
i have been doing research into poisonous plants and i have hit a stone

what is the MOST toxic plant in the world. some websites say it is the
castor bean some say it is the roseary pea but some people say it
deadly nightshade(atropa belladona) i just dont know

Castor bean seems a good candidate, but some other nasties include Oleander
(said to be able to kill if twigs are used as barbecue skewers) and
monkshood (but I'm still here despite my parents having a garden full of
this).

Alnwick garden have a good poisonous plants collection, and apparently
someone was hospitalised after just sniffing the henbane.

but Nicotiana probably kills more than all the other poisonous plants put
together.

Have there been any reported cases in UK?

I presume he's referring to deaths from the cured dried leaves.

Of what? He asked for the most toxic plant.

Not the OP - I meant the guy who mentioned the Nicotiana

My reply has been snipped so
as to alter its original meaning. I wrote: " Have there been any reported
cases in UK? I didn't think anyone had died of accidental plant poisoning
(according to the RHS) for a very long time."
I was not referring to Nicotiana or any other plant speifically.

In that case I misunderstood you - you inserted your reply straight
after the Nicotiana comment and I understood you to be referring to
that.

What exactly is meant by 'the most toxic'? The one which has killed the
most? The one with the highest concentration of the poisonous substance?

What would be your thinking?

Just that it's not easy to answer the question without clarifying the
definition. Probably what is meant is the plant which requires least of
the plant to kill, but one could argue that something which kills
quickly is more toxic than something which takes longer to kill. And the
statistics are likely to highlight the ones which have caused most
deaths, which are not necessarily the most toxic, because other factors
come in, like how common the plant is, how attractive it is, how easily
mistaken for edible things, etc.

--
Kay