Christmas Plant Not Toxic, Experts Say
By Terry Ganey, Columbia Daily Tribune, Mo.
Dec. 10–If you catch the dog eating the poinsettia plant over the Christmas holidays, there’s no need to rush the pet to the vet for treatment.
Poinsettias are not poisonous, said David Trinklein, a horticulturist at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
“Scientific research has proved the poinsettia to be nontoxic to both humans and pets,” Trinklein said.
Still, as a nonfood product, you wouldn’t want to make a dinner salad out of poinsettia leaves. The plants are not meant to be eaten. And it’s a good idea to keep them out of reach of children and pets.
Trinklein said that misperceptions about the plant persist and that every year he gets asked the same question about whether they are poisonous.
According to the public information office of the MU agricultural and extension office, surveys by the American Society of Florists indicate that more than 60 percent of the population thinks the flower and leaves of the plant are poisonous if eaten.
Dick Gladon, a professor in the horticulture department at Iowa State University, said the notion that poinsettias were poisonous began decades ago when a child in Hawaii died after eating part of a plant. Extensive laboratory testing followed at Ohio State University, where Gladon was going to school.
He said one of his professors went on local television and ate part of a plant to prove to viewers that poinsettias were not toxic.
Gladon, too, once ate part of a plant to make the same point to some of his students.
“Under no circumstances would I recommend for anybody to try this,” he said. “In no way am I condoning or recommending that people eat it. The point I want to make is that it is not toxic in the way that this myth has been for years.”
The floral industry wants to dispel misinformation about the plant that, with more than 80 million sold, is America’s most popular Christmas flower.
Gladon, who teaches greenhouse crop production, said the wholesale value for potted poinsettias was just under $250 million and the retail value is somewhere between $500 million and $1 billion.
Poinsettias began as a semi-woody shrub native to Mexico. It was later grown as a cut flower and evolved into becoming a potted plant. It became associated with Christmas because of its red and green color.
Bill Regan, owner of Regan’s Riverhill Garden Center in Boone County, said his nursery grows about 25,000 of the plants a year.
“For Christmas, it’s America’s most popular plant,” Regan said. “Nothing comes close to it.”
Trinklein said poinsettias should be placed in a brightly-lighted location away from cold drafts. He said color could be prolonged by keeping the plant at 60 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit with high humidity. He warned against over-watering, saying the plants should get water only when the surface of the soil in which they are growing is dry to the touch.
Because poinsettias are difficult to rebloom, most people discard them after the holiday.
Jill Moseley, a veterinarian at the Columbia Pet Hospital, said she could not recall anyone ever bringing a pet in during the holidays because it had eaten a poinsettia.
“People have asked if they are poisonous,” she said. “From what I’ve heard, you’d have to eat an awful lot to make you sick.”
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