In article . com,
writes:
|
| I agree wholeheartedly that plants capable of inflicting serious pain
| and/or permanent skin or eye damage are too dangerous to grow in a
| garden where children will play. Fortunately there are not too many of
| them. ...

Agreed.

| Though the handful of seriously deadly plants where the flower or
| fruits are potentially lethal in low doses (colchicum or autumn crocus
| and oleander) are also worth avoiding. The list I posted that you
| complained about was over cautious, but AFAICT it did contain most of
| the nasty ones classified as nasty (but also some pretty harmless ones
| falsely accused).

Oleander, yes, though it isn't really a UK plant. But would a child
really eat colchicum? The risk must be lower than having an aircraft
fall on its head.

That list omits a large number of seriously poisonous plants which have
caused deaths - e.g. beans (Phaseolus), bluebells (Scilla), and pretty
well all of the tropicals. And then there are fungi - which you can't
prevent appearing when you least expect them. Even given that, such
risks are negligible - and you can be sure that the people who panic
over such things don't take trains instead of driving (which reduces
the risk to their brats MUCH more).

| You will have the Poinsettia society after your scalp. As far as is
| known the toxicity of euphorbia pulcherrima or Poinsettia is pretty
| much an urban legend that has never been confirmed in any independent
| toxological trials. See for example:

Interesting. As with Solanum, not all are toxic :-)



Regards,
Nick Maclaren.