Poisonous Plants and Poisonous Look-A-Likes

Go to: FDA Database on Poisonous Plants

Go to:  Meuninck's Poisonous Plants and Poisonous Look A Likes

Above:  Jimsonweed  Below:  Horse Nettle		Above: Foxglove   Below:  Poison Hemlock

Poisonous Plants and Poisonous Look A Likes

There are many poisonous plants and poisonous look-alikes. Of course, Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac are common and obvious nuisances.  Most parts of Pokeweed are non-edible. Likewise, for the water plant Arrow Arum. 

Here are a few common poisonous plants (This list is not complete,for a more complete listing see the FDA List link above):
Anenome

Baneberry
Blood root    
False Hellebore
Foxglove
Horse Nettle
Iris
Jack-in-the-Pulpit
Jimsonweed or Datura
Liverwort
Mayapple 
Milkweed
Skunk Cabbage
Water Hemlock and poison hemlock

There are many excellent field guides that have edible and poisonous plants and poisonous look a likes in them.  Here are a few I recommend:

-Meuninck, Jim. Go to: Basic Essentials of Edible Wild Plants, Globe Pequot Press 1999.

- "100 Poisonous Plants of Maryland" by Steven Hill and Peggy Duke.

- Dr. Duke's "Handbook of Medicinal Plants" from CRC Press.

-Erichsen-Brown, Charlotte, Medicinal and other Uses of North American Plants. Dover Publications, 1979.

-Bowen, Deni, Encyclopedia of Herbs and Their Uses. Dorling Kindersley, 1995.

-Kuhnlein, Harriet and Turner, Nancy: Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. 1991.

-Harrington, H.D.; Matsumura Y.: Edible Native Plants of the Rocky Mountains. University of New Mexico Press. 1967.

-"Edible Wild Plants" by Elias and Dykeman from Outdoor Life Books.