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Castor bean, castor-oil plant, palma
Christi
Ricinus communis
Spurge (Euphorbiaceae) Family
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Description:
The castor bean is a semiwoody plant with large, alternate, starlike leaves that
grows as a tree in tropical regions and as an annual in temperate regions. Its
flowers are very small and inconspicuous. Its fruits grow in clusters at the
tops of the plants.
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CAUTION
All parts of the plant are very poisonous
to eat. The seeds are large and may be mistaken for a beanlike food.
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Habitat and Distribution:
This plant is found in all tropical regions and has been introduced to temperate
regions.
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Chinaberry
Melia azedarach
Mahogany (Meliaceae) Family
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Description:
This tree has a spreading crown and grows up to 14 meters tall. It has
alternate, compound leaves with toothed leaflets. Its flowers are light purple
with a dark center and grow in ball-like masses. It has marble-sized fruits that
are light orange when first formed but turn lighter as they become older.
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CAUTION
All parts of the tree should be
considered dangerous if eaten. Its leaves are a natural insecticide and
will repel insects from stored fruits and grains. Take care not to eat
leaves mixed with the stored food.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Chinaberry is native to the Himalayas and eastern Asia but is now planted as an
ornamental tree throughout the tropical and subtropical regions. It has been
introduced to the southern United States and has escaped to thickets, old
fields, and disturbed areas.
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Cowhage, cowage, cowitch
Mucuna pruritum
Leguminosae (Fabaceae) Family
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Description:
A vinelike plant that has oval leaflets in groups of three and hairy spikes with
dull purplish flowers. The seeds are brown, hairy pods.
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CAUTION
Contact with the pods and
flowers causes irritation and blindness if in the eyes.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Tropical areas and the United States.
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Death camas, death lily
Zigadenus species
Lily (Liliaceae) Family
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Description:
This plant arises from a bulb and may be mistaken for an onionlike plant. Its
leaves are grasslike. Its flowers are six-parted and the petals have a green,
heart-shaped structure on them. The flowers grow on showy stalks above the
leaves.
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CAUTION
All parts of this plant
are very poisonous. Death camas does not have the onion smell.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Death camas is found in wet, open, sunny habitats, although some species favor
dry, rocky slopes. They are common in parts of the western United States. Some
species are found in the eastern United States and in parts of the North
American western subarctic and eastern Siberia.
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Lantana
Lantana camara
Vervain (Verbenaceae) Family
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Description:
Lantana is a shrublike plant that may grow up to 45 centimeters high. It has
opposite, round leaves and flowers borne in flat-topped clusters. The flower
color (which varies in different areas) may be white, yellow, orange, pink, or
red. It has a dark blue or black berrylike fruit. A distinctive feature of all
parts of this plant is its strong scent.
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CAUTION
All parts of this plant are poisonous if
eaten and can be fatal. This plant causes dermatitis in some
individuals.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Lantana is grown as an ornamental in tropical and temperate areas and has
escaped cultivation as a weed along roads and old fields.
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Manchineel
Hippomane mancinella
Spurge (Euphorbiaceae) Family
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Description:
Manchineel is a tree reaching up to 15 meters high with alternate, shiny green
leaves and spikes of small greenish flowers. Its fruits are green or
greenish-yellow when ripe.
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CAUTION
This tree is extremely toxic. It causes
severe dermatitis in most individuals after only .5 hour. Even water
dripping from the leaves may cause dermatitis. The smoke from burning it
irritates the eyes. No part of this plant should be considered a food.
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Habitat and Distribution:
The tree prefers coastal regions. Found in south Florida, the Caribbean, Central
America, and northern South America.
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Oleander
Nerium oleander
Dogbane (Apocynaceae) Family
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Description:
This shrub or small tree grows to about 9 meters, with alternate, very straight,
dark green leaves. Its flowers may be white, yellow, red, pink, or intermediate
colors. Its fruit is a brown, podlike structure with many small seeds.
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CAUTION
All parts of the plant are very
poisonous. Do not use the wood for cooking; it gives off poisonous fumes
that can poison food.
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Habitat and Distribution:
This native of the Mediterranean area is now grown as an ornamental in tropical
and temperate regions.
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Pangi
Pangium edule
Pangi Family
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Description:
This tree, with heart-shaped leaves in spirals, reaches a height of 18 meters.
Its flowers grow in spikes and are green in color. Its large, brownish,
pear-shaped fruits grow in clusters.
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CAUTION
All parts are poisonous,
especially the fruit.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Pangi trees grow in southeast Asia
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Physic nut
Jatropha curcas
Spurge (Euphoriaceae) Family
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Description:
This shrub or small tree has large, 3- to 5-parted alternate leaves. It has
small, greenish-yelllow flowers and its yellow, apple-sized fruits contain three
large seeds.
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CAUTION
The seeds taste sweet but their oil is
violently purgative. All parts of the physic nut are poisonous.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Throughout the tropics and southern United States.
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Poison hemlock, fool's parsley
Conium maculatum
Parsley (Apiaceae) Family
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Description:
This biennial herb may grow to 2.5 meters high. The smooth, hollow stem may or
may not be purple or red striped or mottled. Its white flowers are small and
grow in small groups that tend to form flat umbels. Its long, turniplike taproot
is solid.
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CAUTION
This plant is very poisonous and even a
very small amount may cause death. This plant is easy to confuse with
wild carrot or Queen Anne's lace, especially in its first stage of
growth. Wild carrot or Queen Anne's lace has hairy leaves and stems and
smells like carrot. Poison hemlock does not.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Poison hemlock grows in wet or moist ground like swamps, wet meadows, stream
banks, and ditches. Native to Eurasia, it has been introduced to the United
States and Canada.
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Poison ivy and poison oak
Toxicodendron radicans and Toxicodendron diversibba
Cashew (Anacardiacese) Family
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Description:
These two plants are quite similar in appearance and will often crossbreed to
make a hybrid. Both have alternate, compound leaves with three leaflets. The
leaves of poison ivy are smooth or serrated. Poison oak's leaves are lobed and
resemble oak leaves. Poison ivy grows as a vine along the ground or climbs by
red feeder roots. Poison oak grows like a bush. The greenish-white flowers are
small and inconspicuous and are followed by waxy green berries that turn waxy
white or yellow, then gray.
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CAUTION
All parts, at all times of
the year, can cause serious contact dermatitis.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Poison ivy and oak can be found in almost any habitat in North America.
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Poison sumac
Toxicodendron vernix
Cashew (Anacardiacese) Family
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Description:
Poison sumac is a shrub that grows to 8.5 meters tall. It has alternate,
pinnately compound leafstalks with 7 to 13 leaflets. Flowers are greenish-yellow
and inconspicuous and are followed by white or pale yellow berries.
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CAUTION
All parts can cause
serious contact dermatitis at all times of the year.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Poison sumac grows only in wet, acid swamps in North America.
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Renghas tree, rengas tree, marking
nut, black-varnish tree
Gluta
Cashew (Anacardiacese) Family
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Description:
This family comprises about 48 species of trees or shrubs with alternating
leaves in terminal or axillary panicles. Flowers are similar to those of poison
ivy and oak.
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CAUTION
Can cause contact
dermatitis similar to poison ivy and oak.
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Habitat and Distribution:
India, east to Southeast Asia.
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Rosary pea or crab's eyes
Abrus precatorius
Leguminosae (Fabaceae) Family
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Description:
This plant is a vine with alternate compound leaves, light purple flowers, and
beautiful seeds that are red and black.
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CAUTION
This plant is one of the most dangerous
plants. One seed may contain enough poison to kill an adult.
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Habitat and Distribution:
This is a common weed in parts of Africa, southern Florida, Hawaii, Guam, the
Caribbean, and Central and South America.
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Strychnine tree
Nux vomica
Logania (Loganiaceae) Family
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Description:
The strychnine tree is a medium-sized evergreen, reaching a height of about 12
meters, with a thick, frequently crooked trunk. Its deeply veined oval leaves
grow in alternate pairs. Small, loose clusters of greenish flowers appear at the
ends of branches and are followed by fleshy, orange-red berries about 4
centimeters in diameter.
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CAUTION
The berries contain the dislike seeds
that yield the poisonous substance strychnine. All parts of the plant
are poisonous.
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Habitat and Distribution:
A native of the tropics and subtropics of southeastern Asia and Australia.
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Trumpet vine or trumpet creeper
Campsis radicans
Trumpet creeper (Bignoniaceae) Family
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Description:
This woody vine may climb to 15 meters high. It has pealike fruit capsules. The
leaves are pinnately compound, 7 to 11 toothed leaves per leaf stock. The
trumpet-shaped flowers are orange to scarlet in color.
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CAUTION
This plant causes contact
dermatitis.
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Habitat and Distribution:
This vine is found in wet woods and thickets throughout eastern and central
North America.
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Water hemlock or spotted cowbane
Cicuta maculata
Parsley (Apiaceae) Family
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Description:
This perennial herb may grow to 1.8 meters high. The stem is hollow and
sectioned off like bamboo. It may or may not be purple or red striped or
mottled. Its flowers are small, white, and grow in groups that tend to form flat
umbels. Its roots may have hollow air chambers and, when cut, may produce drops
of yellow oil.
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CAUTION
This plant is very poisonous and even a
very small amount of this plant may cause death. Its roots have been
mistaken for parsnips.
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Habitat and Distribution:
Water hemlock grows in wet or moist ground like swamps, wet meadows, stream
banks, and ditches throughout the Unites States and Canada.
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