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Tuesday - December 09, 2008

From: Gibsonton, FL
Region: Southeast
Topic: Poisonous Plants
Title: Do palm trees put off a toxic smoke when burnt?
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

do palm trees put off a toxic smoke when burnt

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants checked the following toxic plant databases and could find no species of palm in the Family Arecaceae (Palm Family) listed in any of these:

Poisonous Plants of North Carolina

Cornell University Plants Poisonous to Livestock

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System

University of Pennsylvania's Poisonous Plants

Texas Toxic Plant Database

The Botanical Dermatology Database (BoDD), however, lists several species of the palm family as having skin irritants. I'm not sure which palm you have (you can see a list of palms observed in Florida from the Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society), but it doesn't appear that any component of the palms would create toxic smoke. Many of the palms on the list from the Central Florida Palm & Cycad Society are not native to Florida and North America. The palms native to Florida are listed below and only one of them, Sabal palmetto (cabbage palmetto), is in the BoDD list of palms that have skin irritants.

Acoelorraphe wrightii (Everglades palm)

Coccothrinax argentata (Florida silver palm)

Rhapidophyllum hystrix (needle palm)

Roystonea elata (Florida royal palm)

Sabal etonia (scrub palmetto)

Sabal minor (dwarf palmetto)

Sabal palmetto (cabbage palmetto)

Serenoa repens (saw palmetto)