Beautiful (but deadly)
Sep 15th, 2009 by lapazfarm
Today we had a lesson on this plant:
Oleander (Nerium oleander), one of the most deadly plants in the world.
Every part of this plant is extremely toxic and ingesting even a small amount can cause severe illness or death to humans and livestock. I once knew a horse that dropped dead when a few tasty oleander leaves blew into his pasture from a neighboring yard during a storm. Oleander ingestion causes hundreds of human poisonings and multiple deaths every year in the US alone. Children have been poisoned from making whistles of the stems. Yet it is widely planted on roadsides and even in schoolyards (!!!!!).
How lovely.
Oleander is beautiful. It is drought-tolerant. It is deadly.
We’ve learned to spot it. Have you?
Thank you for sharing this info!
I know you are trying to make a point, but I have so many oleander stories. This woman was on the fence about whether to purchase some (back when I worked in a nursery). And she was really emotional about the whole thing and finally decided she would plant them and bought 25 or so. My colleague teased her, “Wow, you want to take out the whole neighborhood!” Maybe this isn’t funny out of context, but she went from being too scared to plant one to covering her yard in them.
And then this other time we were playing “Scattergories”…
But you are right and they are very poisonous. The are widely planted in south Texas.
LOL, Jennifer! I can see how that would be more than a little ironic!
Wow.. didn’t know that.. where did you find that one? Its beautiful! The boys looks so big! Love!
Interesting!
I know we don’t have them here. (anything in Florida or Texas would not be here, lol.)
We had them in Central Fl. Blissfully unaware at the time. The kids were sent out once a year to pick off a type of Mecoptera that would strip off all foliage in a matter of days. Good times. Alas, it grew to big, and we had to remove it or find another way to get into our back door.
Huh. I had no idea! Good to know, though.
I don’t think they grow here in Washington state, but I have seen them in California. Wasn’t there a book several years back called “White Oleander” about a woman poisoning some guy with oleander?
We lived in the Phoenix metro (AZ) area for about 13 years. These plant have to be in almost everybody’s backyard. They proliferate the entire county. The school yards, parks, side of the roads. Gee if I had known they were so deadly, it might have been an easy way to get out of that expensive divorce. LOL Just kidding.
We have Oleander everywhere, here in the South of South Tyrol (Italy), in the gardens and parks. I know its poison is deadly but I ‘ve never heard before that someone died because of it.
I remember there was some book where a character was murdered by his wife? who fed him cake with ground oleander masquerading as nutmeg. It was loved and hated almost as much as the Melaleuca tree, but yet oleander was so beautiful lining the roads in bloom. Oh, Oleander. It brings back so many memories of growing up in south Florida.
My Florida town and neighborhood are filled with Oleanders. We’ve caught Oleander caterpillars and watched them transform into lovely Polka Dot Wasp Moths. Fun!
Have you seen the Oleander caterpillars/Polka Dot Moths yet? Marianna found one in October in Tavernier so keep your eyes open – it’s nearly time! You can see her picture here:
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/marihalojen/?xjMsgID=17541