Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 14:25:17 -0800 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Charlie Subject: Re: birds and deadly-nightshade berries MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Rob, No, Deadly Nightshade does not contain uroshiol, the oil to which so many humans are allergic, and whic thus causes those rashes. In fact, despite the name, Deadly Nigthshade, a member of the same family that contains tomato, is not nearly as bad as many other plants - some of which may be in your backyard. This is NOT to say it is ok to eat it, but there are others I'd worry about first. Yew, an oriental bush which you can see planted in school yards, etc through out the middle atlantic states, is a real killer - the soft red berries are bad enough to kill, sometimes with few or no warning signs. And if you or your neighbors use a chem-lawn company, I wouldn't consider any plant in the area safe - there have been enough documented, and far more possible poisonings from that stuff! Then, while you're thinking of it, house plants are often poisonous to some degree, too. Amazing any of us ever become adults. Charlie --- Robert Weiner wrote: > opsreyers, > > do any of our local birds eat deadly nightshade > berries? I was planning > to remove a large stand of the stuff from the > backyard before my daughter > tries to eat it, but thought I'd check first, > as some of the plants still > have some dried-looking berries on them from > last fall. > > are the leaves and stems toxic to the touch a > la poison ivy? should I > wear gloves if I remove them? > > I would be happy to lay off our typical bumper > crop of weeds and vines > this summer (pokeweed, porcelainberries, etc.) > if I thought they were > especially helpful to our local (DC) urban > songbird population. Is there > any source of info on this? > > thanks for your help, > rob > > Robert Weiner (rweiner@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu) > George Washington University > Washington DC 20052 > 202 994 5981 > > ========================================================================= > To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to > listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com > with the following message in line 1: signoff > mdosprey > ========================================================================= > ===== **************************************** Charlie Muise, Naturalist Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary Maryland, USA Question: What does a 1,000 lb. canary say? Answer: Here kitty, kitty, ki= tty! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================= ===========================================================================