Native Plants

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Friday - May 17, 2013

From: Bakersfield, CA
Region: California
Topic: Non-Natives, Poisonous Plants, Vines
Title: Non-native vines poisonous from Bakersfield CA
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Are pink bower vines and stars and stripes mandevilla toxic to dogs?

ANSWER:

Pandorea jasminoides 'Rosea' (pink bower vine) is native to New South Wales and Queensland Australia, and is therefore not in our Native Plant Database, which is limited to plants native not only to North America but to areas in which they grow naturally; in your case, Kern Co., CA.

There are four members of the Mandevilla genus native to North America, none are native to California. They are: Mandevilla brachysiphon (Huachuca mountain rocktrumpet), Mandevilla hypoleuca (Davis mountain rocktrumpet), Mandevilla lanuginosa (Plateau rocktrumpet) and Mandevilla macrosiphon (Plateau rocktrumpet). All are in the Aponaceae Family (dogbane) which is not a good sign. The Mandevilla 'Stars and Stripes' is also sometimes referred to as Brazilian mandevilla, so your plant may have been derived from a non-native plant, but they will all belong to the same family, Aponaceae. We are assuming that 'Stars and Stripes' is a trade name, a cultivar, selection or hybid; again, not in our line of expertise. However, we can give you some websites you can check for whether or not a plants has poisonous parts and it is better to know the scientific name for the search.

The lists often are only plants native to North America, but ordinarily if you search on one genus name (jasminoides or mandevilla) the information on the poisonous plants will be the same for all species of that genus. Here is our list:

ASPCA

University of Arkansas

University of Illinois

Toxic Plants of Texas

Poisonous Plants of North Carolina

University of Pennsylvania Poisonous Plants

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System

California Poison Action Line