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A plant from China being sold that is killing our birds


Pappy

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I saw this on facebook on a farm and market group.

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By Kimberly Bruce 

This plant is killing songbirds across North America! If you have one or see one with berries, cut off the berries and compost them. Nandina domestica (heavenly bamboo) is from China and so our birds mistake it for a food source. The seeds contain a ton of cyanide and cause a swift and extremely painful death. I cut the berries off my neighbours yesterday, but he said he has already found a few dead birds. Such a simple thing could save hundreds of lives.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3005831/

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  • Pappy changed the title to A plant from China being sold that is killing our birds

As to your question regarding toxicity, all parts of the nandina produce toxins. The compounds in the plant decompose to produce hydrogen cyanide. ... The ASPCA website warns that the plant is toxic to dogs, cats, horses and grazing animals. It is generally considered to be nontoxic to humans.

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Two questions:

If it can kill a horse why is it considered "non toxic" to humans?"

Why the timing? This plant has been in the country since around 1800 or so and has gone wild in many areas. If it has been killing birds and animals for 200 years in the US and presumably Chinese birds and animals have been dying long before that why has it suddenly become such a problem?

Animals generally stay away from poisonous plants. You get the occasional bear that wanders into a church parking lot and eats the yew and it makes national headlines. I'd like to hear the reasons behind the current warning.

 

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No big box stores strike again.  When even humans can be smuggled into the country with no chance of detection, how will the inspectors find these plants among others.  

Rip them out and put them in the trash or burn them.  Do not compost them because if they sprout, then that's another problem.  Burning is probably the best route.

This is just one of many toxic plants that are being sold.  Remember, the bog box stores are not agricultural specialists.  Their skill is being able to sell after buying from an order form.  They have no idea what they are selling either.

I found an interesting plant there with one leaf that was beautiful.  They didn't want to sell it to me but I offered them $1 for the pot of dirt.  It turned out to be a rare plant that was extirpated from Ohio and was very rare in PA.  The NW PA Conservancy got pots of it from me the following year and planted it in protected places to spread. That's not the first time I've resorted to that tactic to get a supposedly dead or worthless plant.  I bough a huge $3 pot of soil from Murphy Mart with a dead "stick" in it that turned out to be a gorgeous Golden Locust.  The salesman offered to pull out the "stick" to get it into my car easier and I about had a fit!  I wanted the stick!

If in doubt, or to find a replacement plant for the Nandina, call a Master Gardener who will be able to make a good suggestion for a safe replacement.

If you would like to learn details such as this, consider becoming a Master Gardener to serve the public.

 

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3 minutes ago, Petee said:

No big box stores strike again.  When even humans can be smuggled into the country with no chance of detection, how will the inspectors find these plants among others.  

Rip them out and put them in the trash or burn them.  Do not compost them because if they sprout, then that's another problem.  Burning is probably the best route.

This is just one of many toxic plants that are being sold.  Remember, the bog box stores are not agricultural specialists.  Their skill is being able to sell after buying from an order form.  They have no idea what they are selling either.

I found an interesting plant there with one leaf that was beautiful.  They didn't want to sell it to me but I offered them $1 for the pot of dirt.  It turned out to be a rare plant that was extirpated from Ohio and was very rare in PA.  The NW PA Conservancy got pots of it from me the following year and planted it in protected places to spread. That's not the first time I've resorted to that tactic to get a supposedly dead or worthless plant.  I bough a huge $3 pot of soil from Murphy Mart with a dead "stick" in it that turned out to be a gorgeous Golden Locust.  The salesman offered to pull out the "stick" to get it into my car easier and I about had a fit!  I wanted the stick!

If in doubt, or to find a replacement plant for the Nandina, call a Master Gardener who will be able to make a good suggestion for a safe replacement.

If you would like to learn details such as this, consider becoming a Master Gardener to serve the public.

 

More information on Nandina and other Invasive Plants:

https://extension.psu.edu/programs/master-gardener/counties/york/pest-pages/invasive-plants

http://pnwplants.wsu.edu/PlantDisplay.aspx?PlantID=324

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It is probably a sure thing that the "big box" stores aren't smuggling plants in from China especially this one.  Nardina has been here for a very long time. I think this all came from a kill of a dozen or so cedar wax wings that were found to have eaten nardina berries. This is the best explanation I could find. It comes from Cornell University.

"Nandina berries actually have a low toxicity, but they can be lethal to cedar waxwings specifically because their feeding habits differ dramatically from that of other birds, said Rhiannon Crain, project leader for the Habitat Network with The Nature Conservancy and Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "Other birds don't eat as much or as rapidly as cedar waxwings," said Crain. "Cedar waxwings completely stuff every possible part of their body with berries. They will fill their stomach and their crop with berries right up into their mouth until they can't fit another berry inside of them."

The full article is here https://www.treehugger.com/nandina-berries-cedar-waxwing-4863712 It is an interesting article that tends to temper these over zealous attacks on specific plants because of their toxicity. Many plants are toxic. The deer eat off my rhododendrons every year but I have yet to find a dead deer. They don't touch the monkshood or the foxglove though. Animals have a way of adapting to nature. Occasionally you get one that is too dumb to survive but that is true of any species mankind included. 

 

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