University of Illinois garden devoted to poisonous plants

URBANA, Ill. -- Rebecca Dieter and Marianne Krumdick have a really impressive garden growing, with more than 90 plant species -- some of which can kill you.

In fact, pretty much everything in the garden the two University of Illinois veterinary students maintain in Urbana could at least make you sick. If not you, then certainly the family cat or dog, and horses, cows, pigs and other farm animals.

A decade after it was first planted, the burgeoning Poisonous Plant Garden sponsored by the UI College of Veterinary Medicine still has its original purpose.

Toxicology professor Val Beasley, the garden's faculty sponsor, said that purpose is to teach people about the plants and prevent poisonings.

The garden includes typical household plants and plants common outdoors in Illinois, such as the castor bean, which contains ricin, a poison deadly enough to be marked as a potential terrorist weapon.

Also represented is white snakeroot, which may have killed Abraham Lincoln's mother by poisoning the milk of the family cow.

"If an animal is producing milk, it can get rid of the toxin through the milk," said Beasley.

That's not much of a problem today, since people generally get a mix of milk from many cows and it's heavily processed. But the plant was a distinct danger in Lincoln's time, when families relied on a single cow or herd and drank straight from the tap, so to speak.

Snakeroot remains a problem for farm animals, Beasley said.

Dieter, a third-year veterinary student who serves as the garden's curator, said it is open to anyone. Brochures with a map and an outline of the toxins the plants contain and their effects are available on site, and all the live specimens are labeled.

The garden is a living textbook for UI students and students from other schools who travel to Urbana to tour it. Researchers use it for lab samples, and it's a source for illustrations in lecture presentations and on the Web.

Growing alongside obvious culprits like poison hemlock, which killed Socrates, and poison ivy are some surprises.

For instance, tomato plants, complete with ripe red tomatoes. The tomatoes themselves are good for you, Beasley said, full of vitamin C and lycopene, a cancer inhibitor. But tomato vines are another matter.

"Tomato vines can be toxic," Beasley said. "Last thing you want to do is throw your tomato plants over the fence to herbivore animals."

Those aren't the only plants in the garden that have both edible and poisonous parts. Cherry tree leaves produce cyanide when wilted, rhubarb leaves can cause sever liver damage and elderberry stems cause vomiting, diarrhea and fluid loss.

Then there are ornamental plants and pretty flowers that are nice to look at but a big mistake to eat.

Oleander can kill a horse. Purple mint may cause cows to contract fluid accumulation, swelling in the lungs and emphysema. Pets who nip at philodendrons could irritate their mouth and gums.

"Easter lilies are very toxic to cats," Dieter said. "Even just one chomp will make them really sick."

"They die a lot of times from liver failure," Beasley added. "It's quite common. It's not just Easter lilies but other lilies as well."