Poison flower plant

[cariann88]

Just found this on the internet......

Poor guy.

Hampshire gardener dead 'after touching highly poisonous plant' | Daily Mail Online

[Jay22]

Wow, just read up on this plant...extremely poisonous even by just touching the leaves!

Sympathies to this guys family.

[Martin H]

I have this in my garden. I'm reasonably careful with it.

[Jay22]

It's a lovely looking plant but after reading this I would avoid it like the plague. Then again I didn't know about this plant before so it's safe to assume there will be many other plants which are just as poisonous that I don't know about!

[Fleurisa]

I presume this guy was just highly sensitized to it, a lot of people have it and don't die. Just like some people can't eat peanuts

[arpoet]

I have this in my garden. I'm reasonably careful with it.

I still wont be coming for a curry then.............

[Martin H]

It's a lovely looking plant but after reading this I would avoid it like the plague. Then again I didn't know about this plant before so it's safe to assume there will be many other plants which are just as poisonous that I don't know about!

If I avoided all the plants on the list on the RHS site, I'd hardly have any flowers at all!

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=524

[Nicos]

Oh good grief!

I'd never heard of it and looked up some images.
It's really pretty too.
I'll avoid it too...if I ever come across it.
Makes you wonder what else lurks in the herbaceous borders

Sympathies with his family.

[Jay22]

Think I'm going to just stay indoors!

[Small pumpkin]

I've worked with monkshood. I new it was poisonous but I didn't realise it could do that! We had it at the wild flower nursery I used to work at. I was a lot more careful to avoid the giant hogweed that the monkshood.

[Kristen]

I would avoid it like the plague

I'll avoid it too...if I ever come across it.

Avoiding them is the wrong approach IMHO, here's what I think:

Gardens are full of poisonous plants - indeed I have Ricinus in my garden, from which Ricin is made, preferred poison of Russian spies spiking dissidents with umbrella tips coated with Ricin on London Bridges and usually referred to as a deadly poison / plant ... but Ricin seeds (Google says "50,000 tonnes a year") are also used to make products like Castor Oil and records since 1978 show that hardly anyone has died from it.

What about Aubergines? The fruit are very poisonous, until cooked - along with other's in the Potato family; the seed fruits on Potato plants, looking very much like unripe Tomatoes, are very toxic ... surely folk won't stop growing those as a result? but just be careful. Toxic plants are invariably foul / bitter to the taste, so eating them (a small child for example) in sufficient quantity to be fatal is consequently very rare. Apple pips contain cyanide, and have been responsible for at least one suicide ... I was more worried about an Apple tree growing in my stomach when I ate the pips as a kid ...

Typical sensationalist Daily Mail headline designed to sell papers IMO. I have no wish to make light of it, and feel very sorry for the victim, but the answer is not to avoid poisonous plants, they are all around us, but to be aware, not eat them! and wash hands after gardening and more importantly educate children to that fact - even if you avoid all poisonous plants in your garden children will still encounter them in the gardens of friends that they visit. I was brought up to wash my hands when coming in from picking Yellow Aconites in the Spring - which turns out to be a joke as the spring Aconites aren't "aconites" at all, although part of the same Genus, and are not considered poisonous - but the point was well made by my Mother. No doubt I should, but I have never bothered to wear gloves when pruning my Aconites

[Fleurisa]

Having just read various articles, they don't even know that he had handled the Monkshood plants, its just a possibility

[veggiechicken]

Don't overlook the Foxglove, which is probably in most wildflower gardens.
This is a fascinating website, if you want to learn more about poisonous plants Aconitum napellus, monkshood - THE POISON GARDEN website
Well worth exploring

[VolesAteMyPeas]

Oh dear. We used to have this in the garden where I grew up. I knew not to eat it but had no idea touching it was an issue.

[noviceveggrower]

There are so many poisonous things out there I just think we need to be aware of the dangers wether that is equipment, seeds or plants . As far as I aware we don't have anything poisonous but next doors does have a rose bush with some cracking thorns on it. So I have to remember to cut it down as soon as it pokes through the fence as it always seems to come through at kids eye level.