Thursday, July 14, 2016

Flowers That Can Kill Ya...!

There are so many beautiful flowers out there, we often want to try and see them all. However, even though many are nice to lok at some are deadly!

This next flower I want to talk about is called Bloodroot. Scary part is that it grows in the U.S., unlike some other dealy plants that are found overseas.

Sanguinaria Canadensis



Photo credit: Matt Wade

Commonly known as bloodroot, Sanguinaria grows wild in eastern North America. Native Americans used the blood-red roots as an ornamental dye, but they also used it to induce abortions. Enough of it will put you in a coma.

People more recently have taken to using it as a home remedy for skin cancer, with horrible results. Bloodroot contains a chemical called sanguarine, which, in addition to being a dangerous toxin, is an escharotic substance. Escharotics kill tissue and slough it off as a creamy pulp, leaving behind a dark black scar called an eschar. In other words, putting bloodroot on your skin causes your skin cells to kill themselves.

The same thing happens internally. The chemical disrupts an enzyme called Na+/K+-ATPase, which does the important job of pumping sodium out of cells and pumping potassium in. When that doesn’t happen, all functions break down.

So remember that if you are going to add some pretty flowers in the kitchen pot, just make sure that they are not the poisonous kind...OK?

Coffee out on the patio this morning.

5 comments:

Recycled Cottage & Garden said...

We had these in our yard in Michigan where I grew up. They are very pretty but just like lots of other plants you don't mess with them or ingest them. Lots of plants are toxic including oleanders, pointsettias and the African violets my mom used to grow.

linda m said...

Just goes to show that something pretty can be deadly as well. Haha Sure pays to know your botany.

JO said...

Didn't know about the african violets Ladyhawthorne, I used to have lots of colors but they
are all gone now. The one I see posted here is very pretty, but since the heat here kills most everything outdoors I won't worry about it. Of course we do have oleanders and nothing kills them.

See you on the patio

HermitJim said...

Hey LadyHawthorne...
They are pretty to look at, for sure. I just don't want to nibble on thm all the same.
Thanks for stopping by today!


Hey Linda...
Very true. I don't know enough about identifying plants to even consider eating them from the wild.
Thanks for coming by today!


Hey Jo...
Guess you and I will have to be careful what plants we eat, huh.
Thanks, sweetie, for dropping by today!

Dizzy-Dick said...

I was an Euel Gibbons fan and had a couple of his books. You would be surprised what all I ate that was growing wild.