The Deadly Garden

The bright orange and blue blossom of the bird-of-paradise plant sways gently in the breeze. Moistened by a wintry rain, the leaves of an azalea shed pearls of water. Except for the tile mosaic of a skull that lies in their midst, the cluster of plants looks like just another pretty California backyard garden. In fact, the attractive foliage masks the sinister nature of the display. Located in a walled courtyard outside the pediatrics clinic at the Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in Fontana, Calif., the garden consists of 20 plants, all of them popular --and poisonous.

The cheerful caretaker of the lethal flora is Dr. Guy Hartman, a veteran pediatrician. He started the garden a year and a half ago, not as a grim joke, but as a serious "consciousness-raising" project to make people aware of the hazardous side of the nation's infatuation with horticulture. Last year at least 12,000 Americans were poisoned by plants, some of them fatally. Most of these cases stemmed not from rare, unfamiliar species, but from such garden-variety types as the poinsettia, holly, mistletoe, wisteria and even rhubarb.

Poisonous Beans. On each of the plants in his garden, Hartman has placed a label that gives its name, lists its nonedible parts and gives the symptoms of poisoning (see box). "We just want people to be aware how easy it is for their kids to get poisoned by playing in the backyard," says Hartman. He points out that toddlers from 18 months to two years old are especially vulnerable because they put almost anything they pick up into their mouths. Next are the three-to-five-year-olds who, he says, "like to 'have a party' and serve just about whatever looks edible." Favorites, he says, are the pretty but poisonous castor beans, which are often strung into necklaces. "Do you know how easy it is for a child to pull one of the beans off and pop it into his mouth?"

Despite his concern for the very young, most of the 70 poisonings Hartman treats every year involve teenagers. In part, this is because of their fondness for "natural" foods, like the "tea" brewed out of Jimson weed, a dangerous desert plant. Sometimes plants do damage without being consumed. A few years ago, for example, a California youth died from poisons in an oleander branch that he had used to skewer hot dogs over a campfire.

Hartman warns that a plant should not be considered safe simply because a pet animal nibbles on it with no ill effects; it could still be harmful to humans. He also suggests avoiding smoke from burning foliage because even vapors may carry poisons. "Remember," he adds, "heating and cooking do not always destroy toxic substances, the mushroom being a prime example."

If poisoning does occur in spite of ail precautions, Hartman recommends emptying the stomach as quickly as possible, either mechanically--with a finger in the throat--or with a nonprescription drug called ipecac. Says he: "That is basically the only antidote to any kind of plant poisoning." The next step: rush the victim to the doctor or hospital.

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