Grazing the Neighbourhood, requiem

As usual for the season, I am receiving a number of calls and emails from the IWK Poison Centre. This is good, and bad.  Good because the staff there can reach me quickly. But bad, in that people are not vigilant to two of the most important Ps to grazing: plant and part.

Generally the calls relate to children ingesting one or two berries and either showing illness or not. As many poisons affect us to varying degrees based on weight, this can be serious if we are talking toddlers. We all know how quickly they go from hand to mouth. The best advice I can give parents of young children is to learn the plants that grow in their backyards, or neighbourhood. Plants like Canada Yew have lovely red fruit surrounding or cupping the seeds. BUUUTTTT…half a dozen seeds ingested can kill. That is serious! Daphne is similarly poisonous.

In the past month I have received calls that involved buckthorn, chokecherry, wild raisin, Clintonia lily and teaberry. All but the buckthorn are edible, or at least not toxic. Buckthorn IS considered poisonous.

I also received a call concerning an adult who was sick following mushroom ingestion. This is completely preventable! Consider all fungi as a potential threat, unless you absolutely know that this Nova Scotian mushroom is edible. Many residents who grew up elsewhere assume what they are eating is the same as that which they consumed ‘back home’. Not always true! We were unable to provide much information for the patient as he had not reserved any uneaten fungus, nor taken pictures. The description provided and the circumstances did not match. Some of our most visible mushrooms and fungi are deadly poisonous.

Again please feel free to contact me with identification questions. If I don’t know the answer, I will find somebody who does. Before eating anything wild-gathered  where you are uncertain, ask. Photograph it and save some.

And of course, in the case of showing illness after eating something from the wild, call 911 and ask for the Poison Centre.

yew fruit, probably Taxus baccata, an ornamental here; contributed

Daphne, photo by Martin Thomas

Buckthorn, Frangula alnus, photo by JK Lindsey