Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Saturday - August 04, 2007
From: Simsbury, CT
Region: Northeast
Topic: Poisonous Plants
Title: Is Rosa rugosa poisonous?
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
Are beach plums from a Rosa rogosa poisonous?ANSWER:
Rosa rugosa doesn't appear on any of the toxic plant databases that Mr. Smarty Plants searched: Cornell University Poisonous Plants Informational Database, Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System, Poisonous Plants of Pennsylvania, Texas Toxic Plants and Poisonous Plants of North Carolina. Indeed, no species of the Genus Rosa appears in these toxic plant databases. Even though R. rugosa is a native of Asia and not a North American native, it has been used extensively as an ornamental throughout North America. One would think that if it had any toxic properties that they would have been reported. Indeed, many species of Rosa have been used for food and medicinal purposes by Native Americans according to the University of Michigan's Native American Ethnobotany database. Nevertheless, great caution should always be taken when sampling wild plants.More Poisonous Plants Questions
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September 18, 2012 - I have a recipe for Asadero cheese that uses silverleaf nightshade and have eaten this cheese many times. Is it too much quantity that makes it poisonous to people?
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Ingestion of agave sap from Albuquerque NM
June 11, 2013 - My boyfriend was out in the Arizona desert without water for two days and sought moisture through what he thought was a yucca plant but instead we believe was agave. He sucked the moisture off the ins...
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Is horseherb toxic to chickens in Austin, TX?
November 05, 2012 - My yard is almost completely horseherb (straggler daisy, calyptocarpus vialis) and I am hoping you can tell me if this is safe for chickens to eat? As common as it is here, there is nothing I could fi...
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Jimsonweed and its toxic nature
June 21, 2011 - I purchased a Jimson weed plant at a local plant sale at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center this spring and was quite surprised at how quickly & large it grew. After the first round of flowers fa...
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Affect of poisonous plant roots in soils for vegetables from Rusk TX
May 11, 2013 - I have a huge old flowerbed in front of my house that I want to plant veggies in, but I'm afraid to. It has a catalpa tree there, which I sell the worms from, but the entire tree (bark, leaves, flowe...
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