Writings in the Sand

How Potted Plants Plot to Kill

Today, I want to talk about poison.

Poison was a big part of my childhood. We didn’t keep poison in the bathroom medicine cabinet, if that’s what you’re thinking. Nothing like that. But it was at a young age that I first came across some Agatha Christie novels in a church rummage sale, and it began years of seeking out and reading all the adventures of the delightful Miss Marple and the fastidious Hercule Poirot. Quite often, the murder weapon used in her stories was poison. Her sleuths moved in upper crusty circles, after all, and poison is a very quiet and civilized way to murder someone. Not flashy and noisy like the firing of a gun. Not visceral and personal like stabbing with a knife. Poison allows for a certain detachment. Dump the vial in the tea or a medicine bottle and you can be elsewhere when the deed is done.

I learned a lot about poison from Agatha Christie. I learned the names of lots of poisons and where they might be found in common household products. Many poisons grow right in the garden, and it is these poisons I want to talk about. If you’ve read any Agatha Christie, you will be aware that you can get digitalis from foxglove and that belladonna (deadly nightshade) is a beautiful but deadly flower. Christie even used ricin and hemlock to dispatch some of her victims. All harvested from the home landscaping.

So, even in my youth, I knew that wild-growing plants had to be viewed suspiciously. But I never realized that many of the foods common in the modern diet are also quite poisonous. These poisons mostly affect pets. Humans manage them quite well for the most part (except for some of us who are sensitive). For instance, humans consume onions and garlic all the time, using them to season many kinds of food. But these tasty and spicy foods are toxic to domestic animals like cats, dogs and even guinea pigs.

Which brings me to flowering plants. I have received several beautiful and colorful flowering plants as gifts in the past few years. In every case, a quick Google search provided a detailed list of the frightening things that could happen if your cat decided to chew on the leaves or blooms. I have had to move these potted plants outdoors where they do not long survive, but at least my indoor cat does.

See, if you’re an animal and some other animal wants to eat you, nature has provided you with some defenses. You can run away, you might have colorations that help camouflage you or a deep burrow to hide in. If you are a plant, you have no place to hide, and you cannot run. Highly edible plants like roses have thorns to discourage anyone from messing with them. But there are a lot of plants that defend themselves with poison - Poinsettias, Calla Lily, Bird of Paradise, Jade plants, Wandering Jew, even Aloe Vera for crying out loud!

I have recently developed a real sense of caution when it comes to any plant, even vegetables. For a very long time, tomatoes were considered to be poison until some brave soul invented pizza. You can’t blame them as tomatoes (along with eggplant) belong to the nightshade family. Just the name gives me the shivers.

The point of this blog, however, is to encourage people to research any plant they intend to gift to a household with a pet. I feel really bad about putting your beautiful gift outdoors, but I have to choose the cat over the flowers. Beauty and bright colors is how the plant gets you to take it home and poison is how it kills off its enemies. So, beware.