• Solanum

• Taxus

GENUS: Robinia

Robinia pseudoacacia L.—Black locust

PHENOLOGY: Long, fragrant, white, grapelike clusters of flowers are produced in May and June.

DISTRIBUTION: Robinia pseudoacacia is a native tree inhabiting woods, thickets, and fencerows.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Black locust is an open tree that can reach a height of 25 m; stipules: modified into two opposing spines 1 cm long flankingthe base of the petiole; leaves: odd pinnately compound; leaflets: up to 9 pairs, elliptic to ovate-obtuse, 2-4 cm; inflorescence: a raceme, dense, drooping, many-flowered, 20 cm long; flowers: white. fragrant, 2-2.5 cm; fruit: 5-10 cm long, reddish brown, glabrous, remaining in clusters on the tree over winter and becoming black.

POISONOUS PARTS: Toxins are produced by the plant and accumulate in the leaves, seeds, and inner bark. In controlled experiments on horses an aqueous extract of bark (0.1% of body weight) and powdered bark (0.04% of the body weight) were found toxic. Poisonous principles are about one-tenth as toxic to cattle.

SYMPTOMS: Toxic reactions include weakness, depression, anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea (blood may be present), nausea, dilated pupils, coldness of extremities, and weak and irregular pulse. Lesions include irritation and edema of the digestive mucosa and severe gastroenteritis. There may be venous congestion. Also, a yellowish pigmentation of the membranes, similar to icterus, may be present. Fatalities are rare.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: Two compounds are suspected to be involved in toxicity, a heat-labile phytotoxin, robin, and the glycoside robitin. Additional isolated compounds include acetin and robinetin; it is uncertain what role these substances play in toxicosis.

CONFUSED TAXA: Two other species of Robinia are found in Pennsylvania: R. hispida L. and R. viscosa Vent. Both species have pink flowers and seed pods with stiff spreading hairs, The honey locust, G]editsia triacanthos L., a tall tree with branched thorns, has more narrow (oblonglanceolate) leaflets that are obscurely crenate. The leaves of this plant are even-pinnate or bipinnate and the flowers unisexual. Honey locust seed pulp is considered to be a pleasant tasting, sweet nibble but should not be confused with the poisonous pulp of Kentucky coffeetree (see Gymnociadus).

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Humans and a wide variety of livestock have shown symptoms. These include horses, cattle, sheep, and poultry.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b); (26); (13)

OF INTEREST: This plant is listed in some texts as an emergency-food: inner bark, flowers fried or infused in water for a beverage. Extreme caution should be exercised in this regard. Other species may be toxic. Clammy locust (rose-acacia), R. viscosa Vent., a native in mountain woods, and bristly locust (also called rose-acacia), R. hispida L. ~ a roadside and spoil-bank taxon, may be poisonous.

GENUS: Sanguinaria

Sanguinaria canadensis L —Blood root; red puccoon

SYMPTOMS: The papaveraceous alkaloids can cause dropsy and glaucoma in humans. Loss of human life and livestock has been reported after consumption of plants containing these alkaloids. Symptoms include, vomiting, diarrhea, fainting, shock, and coma. Under natural conditions, no cases of bloodroot poisoning are known.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: Physiologically active latex constituents include sanguinarine (pseudochelerythrine). chelerythrine, protopine, homochelidonine, and resin.

CONFUSED TAXA: No spring-flowering plants from rich woods can readily be confused with bloodroot.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Humans and livestock are poisoned by poppy alkaloids.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b); (26)

OF INTEREST: The colored latex was used by Amerindians for painting skin and arrowshafts. The alkaloid sanguinarine from this plant is used in research to induce glaucoma in laboratory animals.

GENUS: Saponaria

Saponaria officinalis L—Soapwort; bouncing Bet

PHENOLOGY: Bouncing Bet flowers from July through September.

DISTRIBUTION: Formerly cultivated, bouncing Bet is now a weed of roadsides, waste places, and along railroads.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Soapwort is a perennial, often colonizing larger areas by rhizomes: plants grow 4-8 dm and have smooth jointed stems with leaves: opposite, 1-10 cm long x 2-4 cm wide, without petioles, palmately veined (sometimes appearing parallel); flowers: congested, conspicuous, in large terminal clusters; calyx: 1.5-2.5 cm, the 5 1obes triangular with drawn-out tips, the tube often becoming deeply bilobed; corolla: 5 white-or pinkish-appendaged petals; stamens: 10, exsert; styles: 2; capsules: dehiscent by 4 (or 6) teeth; seeds: plump, kidneyshaped, small.

POISONOUS PARTS: The plants, especially the seeds, are poisonous. Laboratory feeding experiments have produced toxicity and death in rabbits. Sheep fed bouncing Bet in an amount equivalent to 3% (dry weight basis) of their weight died within four hours.

SYMPTOMS: Similar to those for Agrostemma.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: A saponin, sapogenin, is similar or equivalent to githagenin found in corncockle.

CONFUSED TAXA: Many species in this family superficially resemble Saponaria. The number of styles is helpful in distinguishing several similar genera. Saponaria has 2 styles; Silene (catchfly, campion) has 3 (or 4) styles; Lychnis (white campion) and Agrostemma (corncockle) have 5 styles.

Some authors separate the annual cow-herb, from the perennial bouncing Bet, calling the annual species Vaccaria segetalis (Neck.) Garake. Others place the annual plants in Saponaria, calling them S. vaccaria L. Regardless of nomenclature, the bouncing Bet has a 20-nerved tubular calyx and appendaged petals, whereas cow-herb has a strongly wing-angled, ovoid calyx and petals lacking appendages. This troublesome weed of grain crops also is considered poisonous.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Both species (bouncing Bet and cow-herb) are unpalatable and generally avoided by animals. No clear cases of poisoning have been recorded in North American literature.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b); (26)

OF INTEREST: In North American folklore' decoctions of Saponaria officinalis were used as poultices to remove discoloration around black or bruised eyes. This plant has been used in European countries as a soap substitute.

GENUS: Solanum

Solanum carolinense L.—Horsenettle

Solanum nigrum L —Black nightshade; deadly nightshade; common nightshade; garden nightshade

PHENOLOGY: Solanum carolinense and S. nigrum flower May through October.

DISTRIBUTION: Both are found in disturbed soil, woods, meadows and pastures, and cultivated fields; S. carolinense is also found in barren fields and wasteland.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Horsenettle can he recognized by its prickly, stellately pubescent appearance. Plants are rhizomatous, to 1 m with leaves: 7-12 cm, half as wide, with 2-5 large teeth or shallow lobes, prickly on veins beneath. elliptic to ovate; inuorescence: several flowered, elongating at maturity to a simple racemiform cluster; flowers: 2 cm wide; corolla: violet to white; anthers: equal; fruit: yellow, 1-1.5 cm, subtended but not enclosed by the unarmed calyx.

Black nightshade is a branching annual, 1.5-6 dm, glabrous or somewhat strigose above; leaves: irregularly blunt-toothed or subentire, ovoid to deltoid, 2-8 cm; flower: white corolla, 5-10 mm; fruit: black, globose, 8 mm, mature calyx 2-3 mm, lobes often unequal.

POISONOUS PARTS: The berries and vegetation are poisonous. The toxicity is not lost in drying and may be toxic in hay.

SYMPTOMS: In sheep, severe intestinal lesions develop as a result of horsenettle toxicosis. There may be inflammation of the mouth and esophagus in calves. Nervous symptoms may include apathy, drowsiness, salivation, dyspnea, trembling, progressive weakness or paralysis, prostration, and even unconsciousness. In humans, loss of senses sometimes occurs. Gastrointestinal effects may include anorexia, nausea, colic, vomiting, and constipation or diarrhea (possibly with blood). Poisoning is not always fatal (fatalities are due to paralysis).

Postmortem: gross lesions: kidneys surrounded by blood-tinged serum and edema; toxicosis of longer duration produces blood clots; histological lesions: pale kidneys with toxic tubular necrosis with casts and proteinaceous precipitate in the lumen; focal hemorrhages and edema associated with the toxic nephrosis; digestive tract lesions include acute catarrhal or hemmorrhagic gastritis and enteritis with ulcers that may extend to or throughout the muscularis propria.

Ingestion of black nightshade may cause nervous symptoms including apathy, drowsiness, salivation, dyspnea, trembling, progressive weakness or paralysis, prostration, and loss of consciousness. In humans, stupefaction and loss of senses develop, Gastrointestinal irritation may include anorexia, nausea and vomiting, cholic, and constipation or diarrhea (diarrhea may contain blood). Poisoning does not always end in death. Toxicosis climaxes in a number of hours, or in 1 to 2 days. Death is the result of paralysis. Chronic poisoning may occur and may include ascites as a symptom.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: Solanine, a saponic glycoalkaloid that breaks down into a sugar (solanose) and an alkamine (solanidine), is responsible for poisoning. The alkamines are steroidal. Concentration of solanine may increase 10 times with maturity.

CONFUSED TAXA: There are approximately 10 species of Solanum encountered in Pennsylvania. The taxa are separated by technical characters such as pubescence, leaf and corolla shape, and calyx structure. The genus Physalis (ground cherry) is sometimes confused with Solanum. Physalis has longitudinally dehiscent anthers and a spineless mature calyx. Solanum has anthers dehiscing by terminal pores and often a spiny calyx. The unripe fruits of Physalis are poisonous.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: All species of livestock, deer, and humans are susceptible.

TREATMENT: (11a) (b); (26); (17)

OF INTEREST: The dried berries of horsenettle, which cling to the plant over the winter, killed cattle in March. The berries may be sought in preference to other food. Horsenettle is believed to have caused the death of a 6-year-old boy in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in 1963. Solanum carolinense seeds are Restricted Noxious Weed Seeds and must be listed on the tag or label on agricultural seeds sold in Pennsylvania.

Nightshade berries have been cooked and used for plum puddings and in preserves, jams, or pies with no ill effects. Boiling apparently destroys the toxic principle. When three kilograms of green plant were experimentally fed to a horse, no serious symptoms were observed.

The compound solanine has been used as an agricultural insecticide. The LD₅₀ in mice is 42 mg/kg. The cultivated house plant Solanum pseudocapsicum L. (Jerusalem cherry, Natal cherry) is a cardiac depressant. The leaves contain the cardioactive substance solanocapsine, while berries contain the glycoalkaloid solanine and related substances. This ornamental potted plant will affect house pets and children if eaten. If grown too close to the soil surface, ordinary potatoes (S. tuberosum L.) will develop a green skin from exposure to the sun. This green skin, as well as young sprouts, can contain alkaloids that cause human and livestock toxicosis and fatalities. Brown-skinned, unsprouted potato tubers contain 0.009% solanine. Toxicosis is associated with concentrations of 0.049/o. Green potatoes should not be used in food preparation, or the green tissue should be removed before the tuber is used, Symptoms of poisoning are those given above for the alkaloid solanine.

GENUS: Sorghum

Sorghum bicolor (L ) Moench ssp. bicolor—Cultivated sorghum

Sorghum bicolor (L ) Moench ssp. drummondii (Steud ) de Wet—Shattercane

Sorghum halepense (L ) Pers.—Johnsongrass

PHENOLOGY: Depending on the taxon, environmental conditions and other factors plants flower from July to September.

DISTRIBUTION: Annual sorghum is cultivated widely in the United States. The domesticated types include broomcorn, sudan grass, grain sorghum, forage sorghum, and saccharin sorghum. Johnsongrass, a perennial introduced into the U S some time in the early 1 9th century, has spread as a weed of waste places, railroad yards, highway margins, and cultivated fields. In Pennsylvania it is more commonly encountered in the southeastern quarter of the state. Shattercane is an annual plant that results from crosses between cultivated sorghum and johnsongrass or as a spontaneous appearance of "wild'' (ancestral) genes in cultivated sorghum through genetic recombination. Shattercane is more commonly encountered in crop fields.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Sorghum is a highly variable, diverse group of taxa too complicated to detail here. The spikelets are in pairs, numerous, and compressed, forming a large branching panicle, one spikelet of the pair sessile and perfect, the other pedicelled; glumes: about equal, hard; lemmas: thin, often awned. Sorghum halepense is perennial with narrow (4 cm) leaf blades. Members of the genus can attain heights of 10 feet or more.

POISONOUS PARTS: Green, aerial portions, especially leaves and stems, (canes) are toxic.

SYMPTOMS: Cyanide poisoning to livestock may result from consumption of plants. Mucuous membranes of eyes and mouth may appear congested. Ingesta examined immediately has a characteristic benzaldehyde odor, resulting from the production of benzaldehyde from the breakdown of the aglycone of certain cyanogenic glycosides. Respiration may be stimulated, rapidly altering to dyspnea, excitation, gasping. staggering, paralysis, prostration, convulsions, coma, and death.

Nitrogen poisoning can result from toxic levels of nitrates found in the plants. In ruminant digestion, nitrates are converted to nitrites, which are about ten times more toxic. They are the more immediate cause of poisoning. Symptoms of nitrite toxicosis include cyanosis, severe dyspnea, trembling, and weakness with a chocolate brown discoloration of the blood.

Postmortem: gross and histological lesions: bright red blood with congestion of internal organs; serious surface hemorrhage; respiratory passage edema may be present. Horses have been reported to develop chronic cystitis and ataxia and urinary bladder fibrosis in prolonged cases; epithelium ulcerations and abcesses may occur in the wall.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: Dhurrin, a cyanogenic glycoside, is present in some members of the genus Sorghum. Hydrolysis of this compound yields hydrocyanic acid. Forage sorghum also may accumulate levels of nitrates that can cause poisoning. Sheep developed hypersensitivity to light (photosensitization) due to a putatively photodynamic pigment in some species of Sorghum. For a complete characterization of photosensitization see Hypericum and Heracleum.

CONFUSED TAXA: As seedlings, virtually all species of Sorghum resemble one another and frequently are confused with young corn plants. Annual sorghum is either a cultivated plant or the weed shattercane.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b), (25)

OF INTEREST: Some environmental factors that increase cyanogenic potential include high nitrogen, low phosphorus in soils, drought, and age of plants (young growth having highest potential). Many years of selective breeding have resulted in hybrids having low genetic potential for the development of hydrogen cyanide. Since S. halepense is a wild weed, it is to be considered with more suspicion than cultivated varieties, Sorghum halepense is a Pennsylvania Legislated Noxious Weed (Act 1982-74). Seeds of it (and those from any crosses) are Restricted Noxious Weed Seeds and must be listed on the tag or label of agricultural seeds for sale in the Commonwealth.

GENUS: Tanacetum

Tannacetum vulgare L. - Common tansy

PHENOLOGY: Tansy is a late-season flowering plant, commonly blooming August through October.

DISTRIBUTION: This Old World perennial is found along roadsides, in fields and waste places, and is cultivated in herb and medicinal gardens.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Tanacetum vulgare can he identified by its coarse, aromatic foliage arising from a stout rhizome. The leaves are numerous, 1-2 dm long, nearly half as wide, sessile, punctate, pinnatifid, with an evidently winged rachis; leaflets: toothed or incised; flower heads: many, corymbose, 20-200 disk flowers per head; disks: 5-10 mm wide, golden-yellow, 5-toothed; pappas: minute, a 5-lobed crown.

POISONOUS PARTS: The herbage (leaves and stems) and flowers contain the toxin.

SYMPTOMS: Severe gastroenteritis, rapid and weak pulse, violent spasms, convulsions, and death have resulted from overdose of tansy.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: The source of poisoning is an oil, tanacetin.

CONFUSED TAXA: Tansy resembles the pineapple weed (Matricaria matricarioides (Less.) Porter), which is an annual, glabrous, pineapple-scented plant with 4-toothed corolla disks. Tansy also resembles costmary (Chrysanthemum Balsamita L.), which has simple silvery-strigose leaves.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: The pungent, strong smell of the herbage usually prevents animals from consuming this plant in quantity. Human life has been lost after abuse of medicinal extracts from tansy. Oil of tansy is used as a cure for nervousness, to induce abortion, to foster menstruation, or to kill worms (antibelminthic) in home remedies. Teas made from the herbage can be lethal.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b): (26)

GENUS: Taxus

Taxus canadensis Marsh—Amenican yew

This group of evergreen shrubs and trees has leaves: needlelike, linear or scalelike, often appearing to be 2- ranked; plants: gymnosperms, but not producing female cones; seeds: surrounded by a hard coat and partly or completely surrounded by a fleshy aril.

PHENOLOGY: Inconspicuous flowers are produced early in the growing season; the conspicuous, scarlet fruits, late in the season.

DISTRIBUTION: Taxus baccata is cultivated and planted as an ornamental; more than 40 varieties and forms have been named. Taxus canadensis is a northern taxon found in coniferous forests, rich woods, thickets, and bogs. At least four cultivars are used horticulturally.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: The yews are popular shrubbery grown around the home for landscape value. They can be distinguished by long, slender, alternate dark, glossy green, flat needles and by the bright scarlet-red, fleshy cup covering the fruits.

POISONOUS PARTS: The entire plant contains poisonous alkaloids.

SYMPTOMS: Gastric distress, diarrhea, vomiting. tremors, dyspnea, dilated pupils, respiratory difficulties, weakness, fatigue, collapse, coma, convulsions, bradycardia, circulatory failure, and death are the result of ingestion. The toxins are rapidly absorbed by the intestines. Death is sometimes so rapid that few well-developed symptoms appear; survival after poisoning is rare. In Europe, yew is considered the most poisonous tree or shrub.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: The alkaloid mixture taxine is responsible for poisonings. Taxine I (major alkaloid) and taxine II (minor alkaloid) have been isolated from yews.

CONFUSED TAXA: No other woody, evergreen shrub or tree produces the characteristic bright ed, fleshy fruit with an opening at the terminal end.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Human fatalities due to cardiac and respiratory failure are known. Death in domestic animals is not uncommon. A fatal mistake can be made by placing branches in animal enclosures. Deer will also succomb to ingestion of yews.

TREATMENT: ( 11a)(b); (26); (5- definitely beneficial)

OF INTEREST: The red, fleshy aril is sweet and edible, at least in small quantities. Taxus has been used medicinally in the past. Taxus cuspidata Siebold & Zucc, a species related to those described above, has shown experimental hypoglycemic activity. The cancer chemotherapeutic drug taxol has been extracted from T. brevifolia Nutt. Toxicity may vary according to seasonal or geographic factors. All species in the genus should be considered potentially poisonous.

In the Commonwealth this family is represented by five genera, including Urtica and Laportea. Members produce inconspicuous flowers that lack petals. The calyx is (3-)5-lobed; stamens: as many as and opposite to the lobes; ovary: 1, superior; style: 1; flowers: usually unisexual or rarely perfect.

PHENOLOGY: Stinging nettles flower June through September.

DISTRIBUTION: Moist waste places, roadsides, and rich woods are home to the nettles.

SYMPTOMS: Contact dermatitis results in an intense burning, itching, or stinging of the skin.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: Although a combination of histamine, acetylcholine, and 5hydroxytryptamine has been considered the toxic agent, this recently has been challenged.

CONFUSED TAXA: Several varieties of stinging nettle occur here. The well-established European weed, U. dioica var. dioica, has densely hairy stems and deeply toothed leaves, in contrast to U. dioica var. procera. Another species in the genus, U. urens L., is a stinging weed from Europe becoming established in our range. The genus Laportea (wood-nettle) is represented by L. canadensis (L.) Wedd., a commonly encountered stinging plant with alternate leaf arrangement.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: It is most troublesome to humans.

TREATMENT: (23); (26); in extreme cases (4)

OF INTEREST: Urtica dioica contains substances with known diuretic properties when consumed. Herb extracts contain volatile oils that are used in cosmetic, botanical hair rinses. Roots and seeds have been an ingredient in hair growth remedies and restorative treatments for hair. Home remedies for relieving the pain caused by stinging nettle include the application of juice from dock (Rumex), which often grows in the same habitat, and from onion, leek, or plantain. In spring, short, tender, young plants can be gathered for eating. The plant is reputedly high in protein and has a delicate flavor. Boiling water is said to quell the stinging hairs.

GENUS: Veratrum

PHENOLOGY: False hellebore flowers June to July.

DISTRIBUTION: This plant grows in swamps, low wet places, meadows, pastures, and open woods.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Veratrum viride is a coarse, tall, unbranched herb, 3 to 6 feet, perennial from a short rhizome; leaves: large (appearing pleated), alternate in 3-ranks, broad, the bases sheathing the stems; panicle: terminal, composed of greenish-yellow to purple, hairy flowers, about 1.5 cm across; tepals: 6, narrowed at base, not glandular; stamens: 6, filaments free from the perianth; ovarv: tri-lobed, each lobe terminating in a short style; fruit: an ovoid capsule, surrounded by the withered perianth; seeds: large, flat, the embryo small and surrounded by a broad wing. See Amianthium for illustration.

POISONOUS PARTS: All parts are poisonous, especially the young, succulent growth in spring.

SYMPTOMS: Species vary in physiologically active principles, yet symptoms of acute poisoning are constant: salivation, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pains, prostration, depressed heart action, general paralysis, spasms, and dyspnea. Death may result. In addition, hallucinations, headache, and a burning sensation of mouth and throat have been reported. A species of Veratrum from western United States is known to cause congenital malformation in lambs, including cyclopia (single median eye) and cranial and lower jaw abnormalities. Ewe embryos in the primitive streak stage (12th and 14th day of gestation) develop deformities; fetal pituitary may be absent, Postmortem: gross and histological lesions: not reported in acute toxicity.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: The numerous known alkaloids exist as glyco - or ester alkaloids and include jervine, pseudojervine, rubijervine, cevadine, germitrine, germidine, veratralbine, and veratroidine. Plants also may contain cardiac glycosides.

CONFUSED TAXA: The plant is readily recognized, although the name can be confused with true hellebore (see Helleborus) in the Ranunculaceae.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Humans and all classes of livestock, especially cattle, sheep, and fowl.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b); (1); (5); (12)

OF INTEREST: For two centuries, until the 1900's Veratrum viride was used widely in medicine and as an insecticide. It is now the source of a class of antihypertensive agents that affect the afferent side of the sympathetic nervous system. Rootstock extracts used in homeopathy should be used cautiously since this plant contains teratogens, substances causing fetal deformations. Most accounts of false hellebore poisoning have from been medicinal misuse. It is used in veterinary medicine as a circulatory depressant. stomachic, emetic, and parasiticide.

GENUS: Wisteria

Wisteria spp.—Wisteria

PHENOLOGY: Most wisteria plants flower from April through May; Japanese wisteria blossoms through June.

DISTRIBUTION: Wisteria is commonly used as an ornamental twining shrub near homes and patios or as a specimen plant on lawns. Several species are native to North America, occurring at borders of wooded swamps and banks of streams onto rich woods. Two species have been introduced from eastern Asia.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: Wisteria flowers have the 2 upper calyx-lobes short or completely fused, with the lowest one often elongate. The standard is reflexed, with two basal hardened flowers: purple (blue) or white in grapelike clusters at the end of short branches, appearing before the leaves are fully expanded; seed pods: flattened, woody, often covered with velvety hairs; seeds: resembling large lima beans; plants: woody, twining shrubs or vines with odd-pinnate leaves.

POISONOUS PARTS: The seeds and seed pods are toxic.

SYMPTOMS: Toxicosis involves digestive disturbances' stomach and intestinal irritation' repeated vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and collapse.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: The toxins are unidentified.

CONFUSED TAXA: Wisterias are woody plants with compound leaves, In W. frutescens (L ) Poir and W macrostachya Nutt., the leaflets number 9-l5 Wisteria sinensis (Sims) Sweet (Chinese wisteria) usually has 11 1eaflets. Wisteria floribunda (Willd.) (DC Japanese wisteria) has I5-19 leaflets. No woody vines other than members of this genus produce the combination of grapelike clusters of flowers and velvety seed pods.

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: Children are poisoned from eating the lima beanlike fruit. One or two seeds can cause serious illness.

TREATMENT: (11)(b); (26).

GENUS: Xanthium

Xanthium spp—Cocklebur

PHENOLOGY: Cocklebur flowers July through October.

DISTRIBUTION: It is found in fields, waste places, flood plains, and on lake and sea beaches.

PLANT CHARACTERISTICS: These include heads: small, unisexual; staminate heads: uppermost, many-flowered; involucre: of separate bracts in 1-3 series; receptacle: cylindric, chaffy; filaments: monadelphous; pistillate heads: completely enclosing the two flowers, forming a conspicuous 2-chambered bur with hooked prickles; pistillate flowers: corolla absent; styles exsert from the involucre; achenes: thick, solitary in chambers of the bur; pappus: absent; plants: annuals, coarse, weedy; leaves: coarse, alternate.

POISONOUS PARTS: Cocklebur poisoning is always associated with ingestion of seedlings. Seeds and seedlings are toxic and remain toxic when dry. Seeds are toxic at a rate of 0.3% of the animal's body weight; seedlings, at a rate of 1.5%.

SYMPTOMS: Anorexia, depression, nausea, vomition, weakened heartbeat, muscular weakness, dyspnea, and prostration are symptoms of poisoning. Spasmodic running motions or convulsions are observed when animals are prostrate. Also, abdominal pain is present in pigs. Fowl, which may be poisoned by the seeds, show profound depression. Symptoms may appear within 2 days; death occurs within a few hours to 3 days after a toxic dose. Postmortem: gross lesions: gastroenteric irritation and congestion; serofibrinous ascites, gallbladder wall edema; accentuation of liver lobes; histological lesions: acute' diffuse, centrilobular and paracentral coagulative necrosis of the liver.

POISONOUS PRINCIPLES: The agent of toxicosis, hydroquinone, is used commercially in photographic processes. Ingestion of 1g has caused tinnitus, nausea, vomiting, sense of suffocation, shortness of breath, cyanosis, convulsions, delirium, and collapse. Death has followed ingestion of 5 g.

CONFUSED TAXA: Burdock (Arctium) may be confused with cocklebur (Xanthium), however, the involucral bracts in the former are distinctly hooked at the tip, a feature not found in the latter (see Arctium).

SPECIES OF ANIMALS AFFECTED: All species of livestock are susceptible.

TREATMENT: (11a)(b); (26)