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Show Poisonous Plants Are Often Grown In Local Gardens The daisiess may not be poisonous, poi-sonous, Fred Montmorency, Utah Safety Council president said recently, but more than 700 species of plants are known to have caused illness and in some instances, death. "Some of the species are so common they may be growing right in your own home or garden," gar-den," he said, "or beside your favorite golf course or picnic area. Many are lovely to look at and so well known it is hard to believe they are dangerous." There is no reason to stop growing beautiful flowers and plants because they contain poison he pointed out, just keep them out of your mouth. Train thing other than known foods, children not to chew on any-no any-no matter how familiar it appears. ap-pears. Keep a close watch on the little ones inthe "hand-to mouth" stage. Remember, too, adults are not immune to unconscious un-conscious nibbling. "You may have hyacinths, narcissus or daffodils," he said "Poison from the bulbs cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea striped "dumb cane" and the and can be fatal. Attractively familiar "elephant ears" both contain crystals of calcium oxalate oxa-late which cause painful swelling swell-ing of the mouth and tongue, severe enough to close off the air passige of the throat." "There is enough poison in a ten cent packet of castor bean seeds," he said, "to kill five children. Other plants which have toxic parts include larkspur, lark-spur, lily of the valley, iris, sweet peas, mookshoood, autumn au-tumn crocus and bleeding hearts." Among the ornamental plants found almost around any home are laurels, rhododendron, ax-aleas, ax-aleas, yew, daphane, oleander and wisteria. Any part of the first three and the berries of the next two can cause death. "Recognize these villians," Montmorency said. "Remember "Remem-ber too, that even if a plant is as harmless as milk, it may have been exposed to week killers kill-ers or pesticides which leave a residue. These are poisonius and were never meant for human hu-man consumption." |