Toxic plants can affect your home's feng shui, so place them with caution

Potted plants benefit the environment, can accent indoor spaces and lift your mood. But plants must be kept with care, and many potted plants are unsuitable for indoor placement, especially in the bedroom. That is because some plants are toxic and can ruin your home's feng shui and harm your health. Here are several toxic plants to watch out for when growing them.

Plants with toxic floral fragrance:
Many flowers give off an alluring fragrance that makes people adore them and bring them into the living room and the bedroom, but they are not truly fit for the "living room". It is no exaggeration to call some floral fragrances a beautiful invisible killer; they will slowly poison you amid the scent. For example, the fragrance of orchids can make people overly excited and cause insomnia; the rich fragrance given off by Chinese roses can make some people feel chest tightness, discomfort, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing; tuberose gives off large amounts of olfactory-irritating particles at night, and smelling it too long can make patients with high blood pressure and heart disease feel dizzy, depressed and unwell, and even worsen their condition; the fragrant scent of pines and cypresses irritates the human digestive tract, not only affecting appetite but also making pregnant women feel restless, nauseated and vomiting, and dizzy.

Plants with toxic sap:
The sap in the roots and stems of some plants, and the dew on their leaves, is toxic by nature. This sap is highly irritating: if it contacts the skin, it causes itching or severe irritation; if it contacts the eyes, it can cause severe conjunctivitis and even blindness; if swallowed, it can even endanger life. Common toxic plants also include oleander, Monstera deliciosa, Alocasia macrorrhizos, ivy, poinsettia, rhododendron, iris and narcissus. The toxins mainly come from the white milky sap in the plants, which contains a variety of toxic alkaloids. Eating the stems and leaves by mistake causes gastrointestinal reactions and nervous system disorders in mild cases, and poisoning death in severe cases.

In the course of evolution, plants contain toxins to a greater or lesser degree for the purpose of self-defense. So it is best not to put toxic plants indoors, not to lean in close to smell the flowers, and not to taste plant sap. This is the meaning of the saying "admire from afar, but do not trifle with it".
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