22 Common Poisonous Plants to Be Careful About When Keeping Them at Home

Plants are an indispensable part of nature and are closely tied to people's lives. However, plants have complex chemical compositions, and among them are many poisonous plants; accidental contact or ingestion may cause symptoms of poisoning, or even death. Many of these poisonous plants are very familiar to everyone, but people do not know about their toxicity. Below, Huacaole shares with you ten common poisonous ornamental plants; pay attention when caring for everyday flowers and plants and when choosing potted plants.

1. Datura

The whole plant is poisonous, with the seeds being the most toxic. It mainly contains hyoscyamine; within half an hour of accidental ingestion, symptoms of poisoning appear, manifesting as talking nonsense, going mad, and convulsions.

2. Wisteria

Also known as tengluo. The pods, seeds, and stem bark contain cyanide and cytisine; excessive use can easily lead to fatal toxicity.

3. Oleander

The whole plant is poisonous. It mainly contains cardiac glycoside toxicity, with the highest concentration in the sap. Accidental ingestion manifests as dizziness, nausea, diarrhea and abdominal pain, arrhythmia, and even shock and death.

4. Dieffenbachia

Dieffenbachia. It is one of the more toxic varieties in the Araceae family. The whole plant is poisonous, with the sap in the stem being more toxic. Contact with the sap can cause skin allergies and hair loss; accidental ingestion can cause damage to the digestive tract, damage the vocal cords and make a person mute, and swelling of the vocal cords can cause difficulty breathing; contact with the eyes can cause blindness.

5. Pokeweed

The whole pokeweed plant is poisonous, mainly containing phytolaccine, phytolaccasaponin, and pokeweed toxin. Accidental ingestion manifests as excessive urination, nausea and vomiting, watery diarrhea, dizziness and unclear consciousness, and arrhythmia.

6. Periwinkle

Periwinkle contains vinblastine and vincristine. Accidental ingestion can easily cause leukopenia, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, paresthesia (numbness and tingling in the limbs), hair loss, and so on.

7. Rosary Pea

Also known as jimumu, it contains abrin, which is fatal. It manifests as nausea and vomiting, intestinal colic, diarrhea with blood in the stool, dilated pupils, convulsions, difficulty breathing, and death due to heart failure, kidney failure, and hemolysis.