The Garden Thyme Podcast

510 Toxic Plants

• Garden Thyme Podcast • Season 5 • Episode 10

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 Hey Listener! 

It's almost Halloween, so we are counting down some common toxic plants you might find in your landscape or even inside your home.  This includes Lillies,  Poison Ivy, Water Hemlock and Vegetables that could kill!
Resources - 

We also have our: 

  • Native Plant of the Month - Hearts-a-bursting (Euonymus americanus)
  •  Bug of the Month -  White witch moth ( Thysania agrippina )
  • Garden Tips of the Month


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The Garden Thyme Podcast is brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Hosts are Mikaela Boley- Principal Agent Associate (Talbot County) for Horticulture; Rachel Rhodes- Senior Agent Associate for Horticulture (Queen Anne's County); and Emily Zobel- Senior Agent Associate for Agriculture (Dorchester County).

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Garden Thyme Podcast Transcript
 S5:E10 Toxic Plants (Oct 2024)

Note: The Garden Thyme Podcast is produced for the ear and is designed to be heard. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.  
 
:Up Beat Music:


Mikaela

Hello, listener. Welcome to the University of Maryland extension presents the Garden Time podcast, where we talk about getting down and dirty in your garden. We're your hosts. I'm Mikaela.



Rachel

I'm I'm Rachel.



Emily

And I'm Emily.



Mikaela

And in this month's episode, always our favorite episode in October, we're talking about poisonous plants, and some are going to be closer to home than you think.



Emily

Dun, dun, dun.

 

 Mikaela 

 Did you know that each year, over 100,000 exposures to toxic plants are reported to poison control centers throughout the United States? We did, but I bet you didn't. Just teasing. The home environment is, arguably, the most important source of toxicological risks to people and their pets, including mostly cats and dogs. The curious natures of both cats, dogs, and children, and their tendency to explore often put them in accidental contact with potentially harmful substances. And we're not talking about the ones that are under your sink, like bleach, and some of those common household cleaners. We're talking about plants.



Rachel

The United States has the largest companion animal population in the world, reaching 72 million pet dogs and nearly 82 million pet cats. 39 % of our households own at least one dog, and about 33% own at least one cat. A study on plant poisoning in domestic animals from an Italian survey found that dogs were most commonly poised Poisoned with toxic plants, and then about 26% of cats. We can link that study in our show notes. The most toxic plant exposures are minimally toxic, and that's largely because they involve pediatric, so children in gestations, and those are usually low quantity. However, the most serious poisonings usually involve adults who have either mistakenly eaten a plant that they thought was edible, or they have deliberately ingested a plant to have a medicinal purpose, and that plant has toxic properties.



Emily

There are a variety of compounds that are produced by or absorbed by plants that may cause toxic reactions when ingested or touched by humans, pets, and other mammals. Some common ones would be alkaloids, which you're going to find in hemlox, poppy, and blood root. Polypeptides, which is one that's found in blue-green algae. Glycocytes, which is commonly found in oliendo, which luckily we don't have in Maryland, but if you do travel to Southern States, it is a very showy flower. And that one is oftentimes associated with cardiac or heart issues if digest it.



Mikaela

My plant of the month will have glycocytes in it.



Emily

Will it? Oh, stick around. Oxalates, which are commonly found in skunk cabich around here, and they are corrosive.



Mikaela

Aren't those the ones that make your tongue swell?



Rachel

Yeah.



Emily

Resins are ones that we commonly see in things like milkweed. Laurels is another one. I think milkweed is a great example of it because I think most everyone has snapped off a branch of milkweed and has gotten that milky, sticky substance on them. And for some people, it will cause a rash. So we do recommend washing your hands whenever wherever you handle any plant because you don't know which ones are toxic and which ones are not. And then the last one is going to be phototoxins. And this is common among black locus trees and then castor beans as well. These can be extremely dangerous, particularly in the seed form, because kids are more likely to eat those, and that's where the bulk amount of the chemicals are. If you suspect that your pet or a person nearby you has ingested a toxic plant, you want to seek medical attention immediately. Some of the questions that they're going to ask you are, do you know what plant was consumed, how much that plant was consumed, about what time, and what part of the plant? Some of the plants we're going to talk about today are toxic throughout the entire plant, and some of them are only toxic in, say, the berries or the leaves or the roots.



Emily

So understanding these different parts and what actually happened can be really useful to help and get them treatment as quickly as possible. But sometimes we don't know what the plant is they ate because it's already down their digestive track. So do the best you can. Remember that we're not medical professionals, so we're going to try to keep this a little vague. We will provide some resources in the show notes, though, if you want to do a deeper dive into some of the books and resources we used. And so for human poisoning, you're going to want to call Poison Control Center, which is a 1-800 number, and we'll have that in the show notes. Pet Pet Poisoning is a little bit more complicated because there's not a 1-800 number for it. But there are two organizations that do offer emergency advice for a fee, and that would be the ASPCA, Animal Poison Control Center. And then there is a Poison Helpline as well. So now on to some of our Poisonous Plants. And I think Rachael is going to take the first batch that we have.



Rachel

So collectively, we all love house plants, right? There's nothing better than the greenery that house plants provide in our homes. And there are a lot of benefits to having plants in our homes. However, there are many house plants that fall in the toxic category to people and pets. And some of those are amaryllus, pothos, phylodendrons, poinsettias, snake plant, pea lily, aloe, Swiss cheese plant, jade plant, and even zizi plant. And many of these house plants cause varying degrees of toxicity, and they could include alteration of your skin, like Emily mentioned, or gastrointestinal distress. And some of them even have very serious side effects. So we need to do our due diligence and research the plants we bring into our homes, especially if we have adventurous children or animals that we are also living with.



Emily

Tell you what, they're all toxic to my bank account.



Mikaela

Nice one. That was good. I think the take home message, just before we even get started, is just don't go around chewing on things. Exactly. Especially plants, but just don't go putting everything in your mouth. You might be cautious or more cautious about doing that after this episode today.



Rachel

Yeah. All right. So the first one we're going to talk about is lilies. And lilies are a member of the lily ACA family. Most species of lilies are native to the northern hemisphere, and their range is temperate climate and extends into the subtrophics. There are over 90 species to choose from, and each has its own characteristics and beauties. They look like they'd be fuzzy plants, but they are They're very, very easy to grow. They're not particular to soil type or pH, and they grow well in full sun and part sun or dappled shade. They're a very easy house plant to grow. They can be grown from bulbs, and they have very large, prominent showy flowers. Lillies range in their height from 2 to 6 inches tall, and they're often very fragrant and have a wide variety of colors, from YTS to yellows to deep pinks or spotted purple. They're absolutely beautiful plants to have. And many of them are flowering in the spring to summer. But this plant is very toxic to our furry feline friends. Even a small ingestion, such as 2-3 petals, the leaves, and even the pollen that has dropped into the water in a vase can result in severe acute kidney failure.



Rachel

This only affects our cats. Dogs who eat lilies may have minor stomach issues, but they don't develop into the severity of kidney failure. Early signs of toxicity in cats will be decreased activity level, excessive drooling, vomiting, and loss of appetite. And symptoms can occur anywhere from immediately to 12 hours after ingestion. And they need to be taken to their veterinarian if you do not want kidney failure to happen. If treatment is delayed, it can result in irreversible kidney damage. So it's a very, It's a very serious thing to think about if you have lilies, if you love lilies, and if you have cats. Another thing is to make sure that if you're sending flowers to a family or a friend, and you know they have cats, tell the florist not to have lilies in that bouquet, or if you're getting a bouquet of flowers, make sure that you pull up those lilies before you even bring it into your house. There are varieties that are more toxic than others. Calla lilies have been identified to being fatal to young children if they're ingested. You have the Easter lily, the rubrum lily, tiger lily, day lily, and asiatic lilies who are Just assume that anything in that lily family is going to be toxic to your cats.



Emily

The ASPCA has a really good infographic about cats and lilies that shows you which species are less toxic or toxic, which is something that we can link to in the show notes as well.



Rachel

And even with humans, all parts of the plant, including flowers, fruit, leaves, are considered poisonous. Even the sap can be an irritant, and that can cause a burning sensation or blistering. So if you have the sap on your skin or if you ingest it, it's something that we should not eat as well.



Emily

Good reminder to always wash your hands after gardening. And it's a good reason to always get gardening gloves as well and to wear them.



Rachel

I love my gardening gloves.



Emily

So the next group of toxic plants that may be hiding in your home are some of our backyard vegetable garden plants that you wouldn't think would be poisonous, but they have poison parts to them. Rubar is one that a lot of people I know grow, particularly in order to make rubar pie. It's sometimes called the pie plant, and it's a herbaceous perineal grown for that unique tart flavor from the thick stems or petioles of their plants. However, it's worth noting that the roots and the leaf blades contain a toxin called oxalate acid and should not be eaten, whether they are cooked or raw. So cooking, in this case, does not break down the toxin. There are some plants where they'd be toxically eaten raw, but if you cook it, it's not. But in this case, even cooking it is not going to break down these toxins. So that being said, we don't want to scare anyone from growing rhubarb in their garden and enjoying those yummy pies. But one thing that you can do to make sure that you're avoiding that leaf and that root is just to measure where the base of the root is and go two thumbs worth down or about two inches and cut there and then disregard the leaves.



Emily

They can go into your compost pile. And then again, about two inches above where the base of the soil is, that's where you cut. And where you're going to get your stock from that you can then cook down and use for your pies or your jams or jellies or other things. So one question that people often have about rhubar is, what about freezing or the frost cycle with it. And there has been little to no evidence suggesting that freezing or not freezing causes the toxins to move either in and out of the leaves or the stem. So it's not an issue of, well, I'll leave it out and then after the first hard frost, I can eat the leaves. There's no scientific evidence to show that. What they have found, however, is that that hard frost turns those stems rather like mushy and greeny. So it is better to just go ahead and harvest them when they are still fresh and just disregard those leaves. One thing that we would recommend doing is potentially don't plant rhubarb right next to some of your other leafy greens so it doesn't get mistaken for them. So put it next to your larger summer vegetables your coal crops, your brassicas, but don't intermix it with things like lettuces, spinach, and other things where you'd actually be eating the leafy greens, so that way you just don't mistaken them.



Emily

In the event that one does accidentally consume ruby leaves, some of the symptoms would include difficulty breathing. You would have a burning sensation in your mouth and your throat. You could end up with diarrhea and stomach pain, nausea, vomiting. And in more severe cases, you could have kidney stones, like long-term-wise seizures, or people could potentially fall into a coma. Long-term poisoning via rhubarb leaves has been known to lead to kidney failure, and death has been reported but is super rare. It is worth noting that spinach, beets, and Swiss chard all contain small amounts of oxalate acid, and particularly when you let them go too long in the growing season or it gets super hot or drylyzed, That's when they'll build up in those leaves. And so if you buy into them and you get a chalky sensation in your mouth, it's not likely going to be as severe as rhubar is, but best to just disregard them and go out and pick some tender leaves or go buy some in the store, clip all the leaves that are out there, and wait for fresh ones to grow in these plants.



Mikaela

So there are other common vegetable garden plants that you might not associate with having poisonous chemicals in them. And that includes tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, peppers, and potatoes. These all belong to a group of plants called the Solanacea family, which is also commonly known as the nightshade family. So it literally comes from the group of plants that is supposed to be poisonous, deadly nightshade. The stems and leaves of tomatoes contain alkaloids, particularly one called solanine, which is what causes digestive distress, fever, vomiting, and a lot of other unpleasant symptoms. It wouldn't It doesn't necessarily kill you. It's not like you eat one bite and that's it, but it will cause a little bit of distress if you accidentally ate too many of them. Other plants in this group, again, include peppers and eggplants, although I do not believe pepper leaves have the same amount of toxins in them. In fact, some people eat them, not raw, but they cook them. But speaking of potatoes, glycoelkaloid levels can increase when potatoes are exposed to light. So the tuber itself, if it's exposed to light, like the soil is peeled away and it starts to turn green, this is associated with a higher level of that solanine compound, which is the toxic compound.



Mikaela

So potatoes should be stored in dark places to avoid this development. But the majority of those solanine compounds can be reduced by peeling potatoes before cooking, which is a really good common practice. It has also been said that green potatoes are peeling with higher levels of solanine can taste bitter. So if you're tasting any bitterness, especially if the skin is left on, you can either not eat the skin or just not eat the rest of that potato. Eating solanine in small quantities, however, is not harmful, but it can be detrimental if you're eating them in larger quantities.



Emily

So our next toxic, poisonous plant that may or may not be in your landscape is one that We've repeatedly talked about how much we dislike, and it's not foxwoods. I should check if foxwoods are toxic, but it is English ivy. For those of you guys who don't know what English ivy is, it's a woody vine in a ground cover that came from Europe. There are several cultivars, some of which have escaped our garden and have become serious problems out in the landscape and out in nature. Initially, English ivy was supported as a nice plant to have because it's got this evergreen foliage. It's easy to grow. It likes being in the shade. It can take sun. However, it can spread rapidly by vegetation growth and by birds disposing of its seeds through defecation. It will quickly take advantage of disturbed areas and shade out our understory vegetation, particularly a lot of our native plants that are a little bit slower to grow. It can also kill those understory trees by climbing up and dominating their canopy. Deciduous trees are particularly vulnerable to English ivy because the vines will take advantage of that extra light during the winter and will climb up them rather quickly.



Emily

And this will add additional weight to the tree, which can cause it to have further damage during winter storms, and we'll shade out those understory sapling. So it is very costly and labor intensive to eradicate if you want. And more importantly, why it's on our list today is all parts of the plants are toxic to humans, dog, cats, and livestock. So the sap and the oils can cause an irritation to your skin, which may end up having an itchy sensation or a rash for people who are more sensitive to it. And then if you do ingest it, you may experience things like difficulty breathing, vomiting, fever, abdomen pain, diarrhea, convulsions, and paralysis. I did read somewhere that it does contain a chemical that has been known to cause hallucinations, but you'd have to ingest a lot of it because this chemical is very small in there. So these are the ones you're more likely going to get them across before you would start hallucinating.



Mikaela

So it's not worth it, in other words.



Emily

It's not, yes. This is not what you want to take for hallucinogenics. That's a whole different episode for some other time. But yeah. So surprisingly, the fullage is more toxic than the berries. And a lot of these plants, you normally hear things like the berries are super toxic or the seeds are toxic or roots. But in this case, it's actually those waxy leaves. That being said, they do make small little blackberries. And if those berries are ingested, you will get a burning sensation through the mouth and the throat. And then again, you'll have a fair amount of stomach issues. If the leaves are ingested by pets, this will result in things like vomiting, abdominal pain, hypersalvation. So they're going to start salivating a lot, and then they will have diarrhea. It tends not to be lethal for pets or for humans, though. And despite the toxicity of it, the economical costs of getting rid of it, and the environmental costs that we did, nurseries still continue to sell English IV, and consumers still continue to buy and put it in their landscape, which we repeatedly discourage. If you are looking for a good ground cover, we have tons of really nice native plants that you can find on the Home and Garden Information Center's website or listen to some of our past episodes about it.



Emily

Please do not put this in your landscape. English ivy, I think, is one of those plants that fills my nightmares and tears. I just feel like getting wrapped up in it.



Rachel

It's so hard to get rid of once it's established, too. It doesn't seem worth it.



Emily

Yeah.



Mikaela

Well, and speaking of plants that you probably want to get rid of in your landscape, I get really excited talking about this next plant. It's poison ivy, toxicodendron raducans. And even in its name, it's Toxico. So this is on the list for very obvious reasons. It's very commonly found. Sometimes one might consider it a nuisance plant, and it is. When it risks human health, it is. It is very likely that you've already encountered this or You'll encounter this at some point in your life unless your name is Emily who doesn't get... What is it? 11% of the population does not respond to poison ivy.



Rachel

I mean, you can stand near it and get it. Right.



Mikaela

I look at it and It's acceptable. It just... It jumps on me. You have it right now. I do. I have it on my arm right now. I haven't even been in the garden. Poison ivy leaves are actually made up of three shiny leaflets with slightly toothed margins or serrated edges. It is a native, so we tend not to call native plants invasive, but it definitely has aggressive tendencies. It's a perennial deciduous woody vine that's going to grow both vertically up trees and horizontally across or under the ground and across surfaces. And the vine will become very hairy with age, which is a nice way to identify it in winter, especially on tree trunks. So don't touch anything that looks really hairy. English ivy will also get a very hairy vine, but of course, the leaves are still on it in the winter, so hopefully that helps you distinguish. But some of these vines can get a diameter that's as big as some small trees, and it will have a bush form if it's allowed to, and that's when it starts to develop the berries. And that's a bigger issue because the berries are very popular with birds and all of the critters, and then they deposit those berries elsewhere, and then you get more poison ivy.



Mikaela

So again, it will show up just about anywhere, and it's commonly found in forested edges and transition areas, especially in the area of our backyards. If you have turf to trees or in shrub areas or wild areas, or even in wetland areas, you can find a lot of poison ivy. It handles both wet and dry soils. It's really not picky. And it can be really difficult to eradicate from the landscape once it's established. Most people don't want to fight poison ivy, because it has such a terrible effect on... It's not like you can just go out and pull some casually while you're waiting for a friend to show up. You have to suit up and get the the right equipment and make sure all that stuff is treated appropriately. And while we have the little moniker called leaves of three, let it be, there are a lot of lookalike species that have three leaflets just like poison ivy. Some of these include things like box elder, a lot of brambles, so raspberries and blackberries, which show up in similar areas. Clematis, which is another native vine, jack-in-the-pulpits. And there's actually a whole... I could go on and on because there's lots of leaflets of three out there.



Mikaela

So we encourage you to contact your local extension office, us, or University of Maryland Home and Garden Information Center with photos or questions about plant ID to make sure you're identifying it properly. This is not one that you guess at and then go to grab with your hand. It's not a casual weeding plant. Actually, poison ivy is not a poison. So this is not maybe one of the few plants on what we're talking about today that you don't accidentally ingest, although that would also be detrimental. It's more of a contact dermatitis issue. It produces a type of oil called yirschal, which is spread very easily on the skin and transferred very easily, especially If you have dogs like I do or animals that run through it, and then you go to pet your loving dog and you give it a nice hug very easily to get that oil on your skin. Be careful. I was going to say, Don't hug your dog, but I I can't say that. I can't say that. So it causes blisters, very itchy rashes, which I'm very familiar with. I can almost tell instantly if I'm getting poison ivy, it's a very different itch than you would get from a mosquito bite.



Mikaela

And of course, it would have several bumps in a larger rash than you would get with a single bite from an insect. Smoke, even from burning poison ivy leaves, will also contain your shell, which is very hazardous if inhaled. So people doing brush fires and things, being cautious about what you're putting into that brush fire. And it can induce a very severe reaction in the throat and lungs. I've heard of people who have had damage done because they've ingested that smoke. Again, you can get this oil on your skin from the vine, even in winter. As you're working in the winter, that's why we talk about what it looks like on tree trunks. It's very hairy. Don't touch it because even when it's dormant, you can still get the oils. They're still contained in the wood. There is no way to avoid it, really. You can protect against poison ivy is what I'm going to say. We are long sleeves and pants, obviously, to protect your skin. If you know you're going to be walking around in a brushier part of the yard, don't go in your flip-flops. Put on real shoes. And if you can, high shoes that go up under your pants or something so that you don't have any exposed.



Mikaela

And you're also going to want to wash those clothes separately. There are probably some products that are formulated better for washing the oils off the skin than others. But when it comes to washing your clothes, just wash them separately apart from all of your other laundry, because just simple soap and hot water should be enough to get it off. But you don't want it mixed in with with anything that your kids might be coming into contact with or your other nicer clothes. So again, washing your hands or washing your skin with some Tecnu or other formulated products that are made to help wash the oils off of the skin. Some of these even contained a sand or, what is it, an abrasive material to help brush the oils off even better than just plain soap. Also, a fun fact, handling the feces of any animal, like cattle, sheep, or goats, that eat large amounts of poison ivy can also cause an allergic response because that oil doesn't necessarily break down in their gut as much as it should. So it just goes to show poison ivy is truly one of the worst plants in the world.



Rachel

It's very persistent.



Mikaela

It is so persistent. It is evolutionarily going to outlive all of us, I think is what I'm saying.



Rachel

Probably.



Mikaela

I love water hemlock. I'll talk about this one, too, because this is also a native You guys know, even though it is incredibly poisonous, water hemlock is a really cool plant, and we have several different species in the area, but probably the most notable one is secuda maculata, which goes by many common names, but they all contain red flag terms like poison, bane, hemlock, all those hot topic words that should tell you not to put it in your mouth. You can commonly find water hemlock in ditches and in roadside. This is It might not be one you would find in your landscape, but you might find it along ditches or roadways in areas where they aren't very maintained. In rural areas like Eastern Shore, you're going to find this very easily. All the parts of the plant are poisonous, with the roots being more poisonous than other parts. So it only grows to be about 4-5 feet tall. It's not a very distinctive plant. It looks a lot like Queen Anne's Lace, which is much more common, I think. And maybe something you would find in urban areas or in cities and things like that.



Mikaela

It looks a lot like wild carrot and wild parsnip as well. And that's because they all belong to the same family. This is the carrot family, and they have a very similar flower, which is actually very popular with a lot of pollinators. It sometimes can be an issue because people will encounter this while they're looking for wild parsnips. But if I remember correctly, wild parsnips have yellow flowers, whereas water hemlock has white. But if you're only looking at foliage, it could be very easy to screw them up. So they have very tiny white flowers in a very umbrella-like, like an upside down umbrella shape, and they bloom from spring to fall. Again, attracting a very wide variety of bees, wasps, and butterfly species, including being a host plant for the black swalotail butterfly. These are the caterpillars you find eating your dill and your carrots. Well, they also will eat water hemlock. So although all parts of the plant are highly toxic to mammals, humans and livestock included, water birds can eat the fruits without experiencing any effect. And the toxin in this plant is even named after the genus, which is cycutoxin. So, like, secuda is the genus name, so it's secuToxin.



Mikaela

This toxin disrupts the nervous system and causes nausea, vomiting, and seizures, which is the biggest issue. This all occurs within 60 minutes after ingestion. So eating just a two-inch section of the root is enough to kill a thousand-pound animal like a deer or a steer. Again, it has a bloom very similar to different plants in the area. And we mentioned elderberry and queen anzleys, but it does bloom earlier than these two. So that's one way to help you identify it. But again, this is a really good call out to the University Home and Garden Information Center because They are really great for identification. You can send in photographs. And we'll put a link to North Carolina State University. They have a really great web page that has a profile on this plant, and we can include that in the show notes so people can learn a little bit more about this native plant. Maybe that should have been my native plant of the month. I didn't even think about it.



Rachel

No, no, no. Your native plant of the month makes my heart so happy.



Emily

So hopefully you guys learned a little bit during this episode, and we're a little creeped out, but are going to be a little bit more cautious about your garden or see your garden and house plants in a new light. If you would like further information about poison plants, we do have a few resources. So University of North Carolina has a really good resource about plants, as well as Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science has a whole website called Guide to Poisonous Plants. That's searchable. Obviously, Basically, a lot of those species are more related to Colorado, but a lot of the that are common landscape would be there. So it's a great place to start searching, and we will link to it in the show notes. It's a good choice. I like your choice.



Mikaela

The native plant of the month is Hertzobirsting, which is Euanimus americanus, and it's actually our native Euanimus. We have a lot of non-native ones that are common in the landscape, but this is not one that I would say is good for every landscape. It doesn't translate well into the home landscape. It's a small understory shrub that's common to the south and Eastern parts of the US. You can find it growing in moist woodland areas along creek beds and soils from sandy to clay, but it does prefer shade. It will not grow in hot sun or dry areas. For most of the year, this plant isn't very much to look at, okay? You guys should Google it and look at it because it's not very distinctive. It has dark green stems and small green leaves. The flowers are very small and non-demonstrative. They're small and green. You wouldn't pay attention to this plant 90% of the year. But come September and October, you can find these bright red berries that truly look like they are bursting out of this pink pod. That's really the only way you'll probably find them in the wild is by looking for the bright red pods.



Mikaela

They do really look like a heart is bursting out of a chest cavity. It's very gruesome looking. It's alien to me, actually. It's very appropriate for the spooky season, and even appropriate for today's episode because all parts of this shrub are considered poisonous to humans and can cause diarrhea and cardiac arrest. And I know Emily mentioned glycosides earlier, and that's because this plant has those glycosides, which are in all parts of the plant, including the fruits, which is what some people mistakenly eat because they do look... Bright red berries we've associated with things that we find in the grocery store, and so it's a common response. So another common name for this plant is strawberry Bush, but I found that was too boring. I really like hearts of bursting better, so that's what I refer to it as. But don't let that fool you into thinking it's safe to eat. Deer, however, ungulates, will eat this like candy. So this is really not good for an area or a forest that is subject to heavy browsing.



Rachel

Yeah, I feel like if you see this in a woody landscape, I feel like it's a special thing. It is. It is cool. Because it is so cool to find. But I feel like deer love it.



Mikaela

They do.



Rachel

You can maybe find one or two But deer just enjoy it.



Mikaela

And maybe that's why in my mind, it's a stubby shrub because it gets browsed so much that they grow on stems that don't get much bigger than one to two feet. I imagine if you were able to leave it and left it to its own devices, it would grow to be four to five feet tall. But it does not have great form or shape that you would want out of a landscape plant. But that doesn't mean it's not a really neat native. So hopefully this fall, as you're getting outside, you're going for walks in the woods, this is another really good one to keep an eye out for. It is a treasure if you find it. And look for those bright red berries or those bright pink pods, because that's going to be the only way you're going to identify it.



Rachel

Yeah, it's an awesome plant. I like it.



Emily

This is really cool. The pods are super neat.



Mikaela

And they do look like gruesome.



Rachel

No, I don't think they're gruesome. I think they're really...



Mikaela

I think they're gruesome-looking, like visceral.



Emily

They're cool in that Halloween creepy way. Because at least from the photos here, the pod's bright fushia, and then the berries are that deep like tomato red. So the colors are just really cool.



Rachel

I think they're beautiful.



Emily

Yeah. Awesome. Good choice.



Mikaela

You know, this is our favorite episode. We got to step it up a little bit. I know.



Emily

I know. We got to go big for it.



Rachel

Go big to go home, right?



Emily

Okay, so this month's Bug of the Month is very appropriate for the spooky season. I regret to inform you guys that it is not native to Maryland, which is sad, but this month's Bug of the Month is known as the White witch moth, the Ghost Moth, the Gray witch moth, or the Great Alet Moth. And this is by Sanier Agrapey. It is found in Central America, from Uruguay all the way up to Mexico. And occasionally, you can find it in Southern Texas-ish regions. This is a rather big moth with a wingspan ranging to about 30 centimeters or 16 inches from side to side. So it is not the largest moth that we have in the world, but it is one of the larger ones that you will find in the tropics of Central, South, and North America. So the underside of the is going to be darkened in a gray tone. But if you look on the top of it, it's white with lots of zigzagging dark brown patterns. One thing that's worth noting is to add to its spooky vibe is that even though we've identified the species and we've known about it for 300 years, we don't know what the caterpillar looks like.



Mikaela

That's crazy.



Emily

Yeah. A historical entomological illustrator, Marie Sylvia Mareau, did do an illustration of life cycle that a lot of people use. However, the caterpillar that she used in that particular illustration is actually the caterpillar from a sphincter moth. How could we not know? Yeah, I know. It's a mystery. So they don't actually know what the larvae looks like or what host plant it's on. And there's a few reasons why they think that this could be. So first of all, it has a really big geographical range. And because it's a closely related species of the owl moth and the black witch moth are known to migrate, it's likely that between this big range and its migration, that we just don't know exactly what plant is on, so we don't know where to look. And people haven't been able to find and rear out anything that hatches into this yet. So similar species, again, that owl moth and the black witch moth, do use things like pees and beans and ligams. Those are likely the host plant of this one as well. But yeah, at this point, we just don't know. There is a citizen science project called White witch Moth Watch, which is led by Lepidopter Dave Wiger of University of Connecticut.



Emily

He's done a lot of expeditions down to its range and doing a lot of research and studying to try to figure out what the larvae is and what its host plants are. So if you're interested in diving into this mystery, David Wiger's website is whitewitchwatch. Wibly. Com. So if people want to learn more about it, you can go check that out.



Mikaela

I am intrigued. It is a massive... It's huge. It's bigger than your hands.



Emily

I know. It's bigger than birds, guys. They have a picture of it next to a bird.



Mikaela

Wild, man.



Rachel

And they don't know what the cat have been.



Emily

They don't know what the larvae looks like. I know. It's such a cool mystery that they don't know what the caterpillar is like, because you've got to imagine, the caterpillar has It has to be big. The pupae has to be big because of how big the moth is.



Mikaela

Just wild. Emily, I have found your new tattoo or your next tattoo.



Emily

It's pretty.



Rachel

It's beautiful.



Emily

The white wings on the top and those really spots and in a zigzagging pattern, and it camouflages beautifully with bark, like when you see pictures of it that people have done. And I imagine flying through that white fluttering. Super cool. She's very fitting for our October episode, and I think she's very fitting of the term white witch moth or ghost moth.



Mikaela

Yeah, man.



Rachel

So cool. So let's get into our garden tips of the month. What are your guys's typical fall activities? Because I know that I like to plan. Emily doesn't really like to plan.



Emily

Emily needs to plan, though. Emily needs to do a lot of removing of small trees and shrubs that are growing in places that they shouldn't be growing. Yeah.



Rachel

Well, many Americans that the fall crisp days signal to them to break up their leaves, transfer them to a pile, put those piles and bags, and then place those bags off to be hauled to their local landfills. Yet our conservationists say that these actions can actually harm our wildlife. So this fall, let's just leave our leaves. Decomposing leaves add organic matter back to our soil, which can decrease the amount of fertilizer that you may need in the spring. And fallen leaves also provide a great habitat for many animals, including turtles, mobs, and butterfly caterpillars, and even our Eastern red bats. Now, you should go back and listen to our bat episode because So that was so cool. Here's the caveat. If you know that your leaves are deceased, you'll want to dispose of them because we don't want to continue the cycle of a deceased leaf in our system. Because then it's just going to reinfect your plants in the spring. Fall is also the ideal time to divide our native perennials that have died back. I prefer to do this in the fall rather than the spring because it allows those plants to develop a good healthy root system before the heat of the summer.



Rachel

And you'll need to do this 4-6 weeks before our frost. If you did any type of ground layering for your hydringes in June or July, dry. Now would be the time to check those plants to see if they can be separated or moved. It's also seed collection time. If you have any raised beds or annual flowers like or cosmos or marigolds, you want to cut those seed heads back when the plant's dry and put those seed heads in a labeled container and place those in the crisper of your refrigerator. I like to actually take them off the seed head to reduce space and then they don't mild you. The key is the plant has to be dried down. If you don't, you're going to get mold. I also do this with different herbs that I grow, like basil and thyme, oregano, dill. You can dry those out with a brown paper bag. Our family consumer science department has some really great handouts on drying herbs. You can save the leaves for those for use in the winter. Perennial seed collection time is also right now. Many of our perennial seeds need to go through cold stratification.



Rachel

In nature, certain conditions that are needed for seeds to germinate, and some seeds require warm, moist treatment, while others require cool, wet treatment. Mikaela is actually the expert on this. I'm not going to pretend to be. But many of our native seeds require different things. So if you're going to start saving seeds from our native plants, do your research and find out which ones need worm wet heat and which ones need cold wet heat, which ones need a stratification as well, because all of our plants are different. I also live by organization, so it's time to clean up your garden beds, people. Don't leave them until December. It's going to be too cold. You know who I'm talking to here.



Mikaela

Me? I know you're not talking to me. No, you're definitely talking to me.



Emily

It's us, Mikaela. We're the problem. It's us.



Mikaela

We're the problem. It's us.



Emily

I like to have something to do in garden in November and December.



Mikaela

Right. I like to save things to do later, just stretch out the fun.



Rachel

All right. So rip out your disease plant. Don't put them in the compost bin, please. Put them in a plastic bag and take them to the landfill. Disinfect your tomato cages. So you're going to remove all the dirt and debris, spray that down with a hose, and mix up a 10 to 1 bleach solution. So that's nine parts water, one part bleach, and spray them down and then wipe them off. So I learned this this year, and I'm such a bad person, do as I say, not as I do. But if you're growing your things in a container, you also need to disinfect your containers. And don't reuse your soil because your containers can harbor things just as your tomato cages and your wooden steak skin.



Mikaela

You're so wise, Rachael.



Rachel

So if you have a raised bed or an ingrown garden bed, make sure that you do a cover crop, keep your soil in place. It's also a really good time to do lasagna gardening. So a lot of layer of organic material, some newspaper that has soy ink, and then maybe some cardboard. And then you just repeat that over and over and over again and build up the organic matter in your garden. Organize your garden tools, make sure that they're cleaned and sharpened. Drain your hoses, clean out your irrigation lines, put all your containers that are subject to breaking if there's a freeze fall away into a shed or a garage so that they don't break over the winter. If you have any tender bulbs like your elephant ear or dahlias, you're going to want to dig those up now and And the University of Wisconsin in Madison has a great, great website on storing tender bulbs in the winter. So that's all the tips I have.



Mikaela

No, it's a super important month. I mean...



Rachel

Yeah, it is. Putting your garden in a bed is just as important as starting your garden.



Mikaela

And there are some things you can put off, like weeding. And there are some things that are time-sensitive, and a lot of this stuff is pretty time-sensitive.



Emily

Yeah. 



Rachel

Well, that's all we have for this episode, listener. We hope you enjoy it, and we'll tune in next month for more gardening tips. If you have any garden-related questions, please email us at umegardenpodcast@gmail. Com, or look us up on Facebook at Garden Time Podcast. That's Garden, T-H-Y-M-E. For more information about the University of Maryland extension and these topics, please check out the University of Maryland Extension Home and Garden Information Center website at go.umd.edu/hgic. Thanks for listening, and have fun getting down and dirty in your garden.


Everyone

Goodbye.


Rachel

The Garden Thyme Podcast is a monthly podcast brought to you by the University of Maryland Extension. Mikaela Boley, senior agent associate for Talbot County. Rachel Rhodes, senior agent associate for Queen Anne County, and Emily Zobel, senior agent associate for Dorchester County.

 


 Emily

Programs, activities and facilities are available to all without regards to race, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, age, national origin, political affiliation, physical or mental disability, religion protected, veteran status, genetic information, personal appearance, or any other legally protected classroom.


 

:up beat music: 


Emily

 All I could think of is, I think it's Scream, where they're like, The phone call's coming from inside. The killer's inside the house.



Mikaela

The call is coming from inside the house.



Emily

The poison plant's already inside your house.



Mikaela

They're closer than you think. They're inside the house.