Three to Be Wary

The poison in the castor oil plant is racin.

The seed of the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, is the castor bean (not in the bean family), the source of castor oil. The seeds, and to a lesser extent the plant, contain ricin, a poison. As few as three raw castor beans can kill a child, and eight beans an adult.

The poison in the Nightsahde is atropine.

Nightsahde, aka belladonna, contains the poison atropine. The leaves and berries of this perennial are hallucinogenic and extremely toxic. The bell-shaped purple flowers produce shiny, black berries. If you ate a Belladonna leaf, it would probably be the last thing you ever ingested. Even touching the leaves can cause blisters to form.

Rabbits, birds and deer, however, eat the plant without apparent harmful effects, although dogs and cats are affected.

The poison in the Foxglove cardiac glycoside digitoxin.

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a flowering plant native to Europe. The leaves, flowers and seeds contain cardiac glycoside digitoxin, which is poisonous to humans and some animals. This same poisonous compound extracted from the leaves is used in digitalis, the heart mediation developed by William Withering.