Growing plants are a great way to enhance the beauty of our living environment. We love to grow them in our house for mental delight and to increase the beauty of the house. It also gives us a warm feeling of taking care of a living being. When we start growing plants it becomes a part of our family.
We choose a lot of varieties of plants to fill our gardens. It might be for the beauty of the flowers, leaves or the plant itself. We consider a lot of things while gardening. Be it a house plant or an outdoor plant we care and maintain it to our best. But do all these plants are good for us? Do we consider it’s good and bad qualities before we plant? We have to.
Not every plant we see and grow in the nature are a good choice to grow at home. There are toxic and poisonous plants that are harmful to our body, especially to the kids and pets. There are plants that cause mild issues and even severe problems. We might not know about this while we choose the plants. Let’s learn about some of them.
OLEANDER
Oleander or Arali is an important plant that is used for pookkalam during Onam. Even we buy in bulk from shops to decorate our pookkalam with it. Actually it is very toxic and harmful to us. Poisoning happens when someone eats the flowers or chews the leaves or stems of the Oleander plant. While caring Oleander plant at home it is highly recommended to use hand gloves to avoid getting contact with the liquid that comes from it.
PEACE LILY
Peace lily is a very popular indoor or outdoor plant. It requires only a very small quantity of light to survive for a long period of time. This plant isn’t technically poisonous, but it contains a compound that can be extremely toxic to pets, children, and even an adult if consumed. This is because of the presence of calcium oxalate crystals in it.
DAFFODILS
Daffodils have pretty yellow flowers that makes us not believe that it have toxic traits in it. We grow it in our house to enhance the beauty of the environment. Daffodils have toxic alkaloids in it that can cause severe vomiting. The calcium oxalate crystals present in this plant cause immediate pain in your mouth or a burning sensation on your skin.
DUMBCANE
We can see Dumbcane in most of the houses. It is used as both indoor and outdoor plant. If small children or pets at home chew the leaves of this low maintenance plant, it can lead to severe swelling and burning of the mouth and tongue, which can in turn lead to difficulty breathing and even cause death.
EASTER LILY
Toxicity of Easter Lily may not cause much problem in elder peoples. But they are very toxic. All parts of the plant are poisonous including the petals, the leaves, the stem and even the pollen. Symptoms of poisoning will develop within six to 12 hours of exposure. Early signs of this include vomiting, loss of appetite, lethargy and dehydration.
ENGLISH IVY
English ivy is a beautiful vine plant that is grown and flourishes easily. It is also great at purifying the air around it. But it is very toxic to humans and animals. It causes skin irritation and burning of the throat if consumed. It’s berries seems edible but in actual it is very toxic. It should be completely avoided at homes that have small kids.
Considering it as toxic plants, we don’t have to completely avoid it from our garden or thrown away if you already have it growing. All you have to do is to take care while maintaining and watering them. Also take care not to let our kids or pets play with these plants.
