1- Hi, Doug.
2- Hi, Landon.
3- I have a question for you.
4How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?
5- That's a great question.
6There's probably lots of food from plants that you love to eat.
7Maybe you like strawberries or carrots or raspberries.
8I'm guessing most of these are things you get from the grocery store.
9All of the foods from plants in the grocery store grow in the wild, too,
10but definitely not all of the plants you can find in the wild are safe to eat.
11You might have heard that some plants out there are really poisonous.
12Here's a great example.
13It's called the manchineel.
14This plant is considered to be one of the world's most dangerous trees.
15If you barely touch it or even stand under it to keep dry from the rain,
16the sap from this tree can burn your hands and give you huge blisters.
17Even using its wood in a campfire isn't safe
18because the smoke can make you go blind.
19In the country of England,
20some people have put together a collection of some of the most poisonous plants in the world.
21It's called The Poison Garden.
22You can visit there, but be careful not to touch or smell any of the flowers.
23That's because they're all poisonous.
24So poisonous that some visitors have actually fainted.
25They didn't follow the no smelling, no touching rules.
26Seriously.
27Now, these are really extreme examples.
28To be honest, there's probably nothing that poisonous near where you live.
29Still, there might be some poisonous plants.
30Do you know of any plants near you that might be poisonous?
31Here's one you might have thought of.
32This plant called poison ivy,
33or, maybe this one, called poison oak.
34If you accidentally touch the leaves of either of these plants,
35you'll probably get a terribly itchy rash.
36That's because each of these plants are covered in a poisonous oil that they make.
37Now, after thinking about all of these poisonous or dangerous plants,
38it could be tempting to think that all plants growing in the wild are dangerous,
39that it would be best to just stay super far away from them,
40but nothing could be further from the truth.
41The world is full of incredible, safe and delicious plants,
42plants in the wild that we can eat.
43Like these kids are picking berries in the country of Sweden.
44The forests in Sweden are full of amazing berries
45with names like cloudberries, lingonberries and blueberries,
46and Sweden takes its berry picking so seriously
47there's even a law in Sweden that lets you pick berries wherever you want,
48even if it's on someone else's land.
49But, what if you accidentally pick a poisonous berry and you got sick?
50That's why this question is so important.
51How can you tell if a plant is poisonous?
52When it comes to plants like poison ivy or poison oak,
53you may have heard this rule: "Leaves of three, let it be."
54If you haven't, that's a good rule to know.
55The first part of that rule, the leaves of three part,
56is actually telling you to notice a pattern in the leaves.
57You see, poison ivy and poison oak leaves both grow in patterns of three.
58Look closely.
59See how there are three leaves coming out of the same stem?
60So, by learning this pattern, you can know to stay away from them.
61Learning patterns doesn't just help with the poisonous plants either.
62It's what also helps you figure out which plants you can eat.
63Like, check out this plant.
64If you've ever eaten a candy cane or tasted mint gum,
65you already know what this plant tastes like.
66It's called a peppermint plant,
67and it's where we get the flavoring for a lot of mint-flavored things.
68Do you notice the stem?
69It's got a square shape, not a round shape like most other plants.
70That's because peppermint is part of the mint family,
71and almost all of the members of the mint family have square-shaped stems.
72The cool thing about plants in the mint family, plants like peppermint, basil and oregano,
73is that almost none of them are poisonous.
74So knowing this pattern about the square-shape stems
75can help you tell which plants are safe to eat.
76But the problem is no one pattern is perfect.
77For example, if you only follow the leaves of three pattern to stay away from poison ivy,
78you're going to miss out on some awesome fruits,
79like strawberries and raspberries.
80They also have three leaves on each stem.
81Ah, so if no one pattern is perfect,
82how do you get really good at knowing which plants are poisonous?
83Well, there's only one way.
84You just learn more and more patterns to look for.
85Take a look at this raspberry plant.
86It can have the same three-leaf pattern that poison ivy and poison oak have,
87but knowing more patterns can help you tell the difference.
88See how the raspberry plant has tiny thorns on its stem?
89A poison ivy plant will never have a thorny stem.
90Also, notice how the raspberry leaves are more sharp and pointy around the edges.
91A poison ivy leaf is smoother and more rounded looking.
92So, in summary,
93you can learn to tell poisonous plants from non-poisonous ones by learning different patterns.
94No one pattern can tell you whether a plant is poisonous or not.
95You'll want to learn lots of patterns,
96but you can do that by getting the help of a plant expert who can teach you.
97Chances are there are local groups of experts in your area
98who go looking for wild plants they can eat, called foraging groups,
99where you can get to meet some of these plant experts and start learning the patterns.
100There's also some great books on this you can buy or check out from the library.
101That's all for this week's question.
102Thanks, Landon, for asking it.