[Umbrian]

After a week spent caring for guests I was pleased to see ,on finally finding time to catch up on the Forum, that the topic Re Duranta had received some interesting posts. As regards the poisonous fruits this is very important information but my plant never sets fruit and so at the moment I don't have to worry. However if I manage to keep it through the winter I shall certainly keep an eye on this next year.
I do feel that parents have a responsibility to educate their children regarding what to put in their mouths and what not to! Unfortunately, in this modern age many children are completely out of touch with nature (the widespread belief that milk is produced by the bottle or carton that it comes in and that fruit and vegetables "come" from the supermaket ) Scaremongering articles in the press about what not to grow in the garden because of the dangers of poisoning are all very well but education is surely the best approach?

[John]

I agree with being sensible about what's poisonous. So much of what's in our gardens and in the wild is poisonous to varying degrees. If we were paranoid there wouldn't be much left. With horta I have seen celandine Ranunculus ficaria eaten in Crete and tried it myself. It tastes very like watercress but is actually poisonous. I seem to remember someone saying that you shouldn't add too much of it to a salad! I suppose fruits are more likely to be tempting than anything say on an oleander.
Here in London every year I eat a few yew berries. As long as you spit out the seed and don't crush it the aril is edible, the only part of the tree that is. The aril is the red fleshy bit which is very sticky too. I only ever have a few because they are so sickly sweet. Whether having many more would be a problem I don't know. I haven't been tempted to make jam from them but I suppose this is quite possible.
WARNING DON'T TRY ANY OF THIS AT HOME!

[gggardener]

Duranta grows so well in South Australia - 'Giesha Girl' is such a good value plant as requires little water or TLC, seldom without some flowers and covered through warmer months. My son (definitely a non-gardener!) has a bush trimmed to a tree shape and nearly 5metres tall.

Another plant with similar qualities is Solanum rantonnetii - love it!

[ezeiza]

the reason why I mentioned the poisonous nature of the berries is that when this case happened, no one had any information about this.
And the doctors mentioned many similar cases. It was most dangerous when adults did not see children near the plant and therefore no probable cause for the catatonic symptoms.

[John]

Are the symptoms short lived or do they result in longer term problems even worse any deaths? If this is a real problem it would be sensible for the plants to have at least a warning label about it's poisonous nature.

[ezeiza]

What toxicologists told us was that it was very fortunate that her mother saw the child around the shrub. Otherwise symptoms can be attributed to a roster of possibilities and in the meantime the alkaloids would keep on acting until death took place. It depends on the children's age and the number of berries ingested.

[gggardener]

This is useful information - I am a garden designer and while studying did an assignment on toxic plants - I included 50 but could have kept going! I thought it interesting that some that are toxic to certain animals don't cause a problem with other animal species or humans and vice versa.

I recently saw a spectacular hotel garden with numerous small intimate seating areas hedged with oleander - not sure why would anyone use that in a public space when there are so many other good non-toxic hedging plants available.

If I use a plant in a design that I know can be toxic I include details in the notes on plan - my assignment has made me a little paranoid!

Duranta is an old favorite so will have to add a warning about its berries!

[MikeHardman]

gggardener - I hope Lantana was on your list of toxic plants, and hence suitably labelled on your garden designs.
As with Duranta, it is the berries that are the real problem.
(http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/Lantaca.htm)

[John J]

I realise that we are getting away from the subject heading (ie Duranta) but to follow on from gggardener's point about certain plants being poisonous to some creatures and not others. This is true of the popular street tree Melia azedarach (Indian Bead Tree, Persian Lilac, Pride of India). Its berries are toxic to all mammals except fruit bats, they love them. We used to enjoy the sight of the Egyptian Fruit Bats visiting a large tree at the side of the house after dusk until a few years ago. Sadly, they no longer do so and we can only attribute it to the general decline in their numbers on the island due to a variety of causes including habitat destruction. I have also heard that the berries make birds drunk but not have seen any intoxicated sparrows hopping erratically around the yard I can't verify this.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Getting even further away from Duranta, did you see this picture in the newspaper of a moose drunk on fermented apples in Sweden?

[gggardener]

Lantana is a good example of plants toxic to some species and not others as it can be fatal but is said to be a delicacy to birds that spread its seed.

Perhaps I should include a warning about fermented fruit on plans as I think that moose is going to have a terrible headache when it wakes up!

[ezeiza]

Both Lantana camara (camara with the final "a" accented is the native Indian name for it) and L. montevidensis are native here in Argentina but never heard of a single case of toxicity. Perhaps black berries are not attractive at all (?).

[John]

Recently I came across the principle that birds eat toxic fruits and once the toxin starts to take effect they regurgitate it having extracted some nutrition. This seems to be the method of seed dispersal which may even be more common than the seed emerging from the other end!!!!!!! No authority on this just something I think I came across.

[Umbrian]

I think it is very wise for garden designers to add notes on the toxicity of any plants they are using as gggardener does. As John points out so many plants are toxic to some degree it would be difficult to avoid having some in any garden and the responsibility surely lies with parents to make children aware that they do not put anything into their mouths without knowing what it is? Life is full of hazards and children should be made aware of them in a sensible way, in the case of plants ,providing an introduction to the wonderful world of nature and gardening. Teachers also had a part to play when I was young as we had a "Nature Table" to which we could bring wild flowers etc and then time was spent dicussing the contents. These seem to have disappeared now as I discovered when my grandchildren started school.

[Hilary]

Well I have to have my say on this subject too.
Corinth Plateia/ paark has several of these bushes with lots of orange berries at child height.
Hundreds of children go through this square every day on their way to school, to the playground and to the post office.
Some of them are the sometimes  unshod, hungry, poor Rom
I have never heard of any of them putting these berries  or any other berries for that matter in their mouths.