DEATH

The dead of winter seems like an appropriate time to discuss Poisonous Plants.  When I am in April, filled by a wild salad, and in August, with berry juice running down my arms, I feel a satisfying sensation that the earth loves me and wants me to thrive.  But in January, I have my doubts.  Now is as good a time as ever to look at the wild and free ways that the earth would like to kill us all.  One such way is through poisonous plants, many of which grow abundantly around here.  

These are important plants for every wild forager to know well.  Use a reliable identifier.  I recommend Plants of the Southern Interior British Colombia and the Inland Northwest, published by Lone Pine.  

Water-Hemlock (Cicuta Douglasii) is perhaps the most deadly plant in these parts.  This is not to be confused with the nutritious conifers Western and Mountain Hemlocks.  Water-Hemlock is a water-loving, parsley-family perennial which grows along rivers and streams.  The parsley family, not unlike my own, contains both beneficial and toxic members, most appearing similar to the Water-Hemlock.   According to Plants of the Southern Interior…, the powdered roots were used by the Okanogan as arrow poison.   Water-Hemlock grows 3-6 feet tall and has a thick, sometimes purpley stem.  The leaves are compound, divided, oblong with toothy sided leaflets that some say look like marijuana leaves.  The peculiar, defining features are that the leaf veins end in notches between the teeth and that the base of the stalk is chambered.  It has greenish-white lacey flowers in the summer.  Its poison is an oily fluid permeating every part of the plant.   The roots contain the most oil, and are therefore the most deadly part (one bite is enough).  Immediately wash your hands or tools if they touch this plant.    The gruesome death you could expect Water-Hemlock to produce would be theatrical with a quick succession of vomiting, staggering, violent convulsions, paralysis and finally, failure to breath = death.

             

Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum), the infamous accomplice to the death of the iconoclastic and heroic Socrates, can be found in these parts as well.  It enjoys the same watery ditches and creeks as Water-Hemlock, and is equally deadly.  Poison-Hemlock is taller,  2-8 feet, with summer, Queen-Anne's-lace-like flowers.  Plants of the Southern… describes it as a "course, freely branching biennial from a stout taproot, with highly dissected, feathery leaves and purple-spotted stems." 

Indian Hellebore (Varatrum viride)  is my kid's favorite poisonous plant.  She points it out, yelling to us to make sure we don't touch it.  This plant looks like a mix between a lily, skunk cabbage and corn.  The leaves are large, oblong and ribbed with a hairy underside (though I've never inspected it that closely).  At their bases, the leaves wrap themselves around the thick stalk.  The flowers are green "drooping tassels." (Plants of the Southern…).  I've spotted this throughout the woods at Idler's Rest and Kamiak Butte.  Drinking water from nearby a Hellebore is said to cause stomach cramps.  Eating a hellebore may not cause death, though you may wish for it as you writhe, vomit, foam at the mouth, can't see and experience "lock-jaw".  Native Americans recognized it as a remedy for advanced stages of cancer and tuberculosis.

Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus) is another toxic local plant, growing within city limits, Field Springs Park, Kamiak Butte, Idler's rest, etc. etc.  It looks like a Huckleberry or Service berry bush, but with white berries.  Translated from native languages, it is "corpse berry" and "ghost berry."  Food Plants of the Interior First Peoples, by Nancy J. Turner reports that the Stl'atl'imx identify them as Saskatoon (service) berries from the Land of the Dead.  Some also know it as wax berry. They reportedly have killed children and the Nlaka'pamux believed they were fatally poisonous. Unfortunately, I was unable to locate gorey descriptions of Snowberry fatalities.

This is not a complete list of the common and native poisonous plants, but they are my favorites.  Luckily, I have no first hand Cautionary Tales regarding these wild and free in-edibles. 

I am left pondering until spring if the earth loves me. She loves me not. She loves me.  She loves me not…