**********Please Subscribe To My Blog…..It Really Helps**********

Here’s another category where a Florida resident needs to become trained…and observant…..

***Maleficent Horticulture…and the Art of Identifying Poisonous Plants***

*****(Basic Poisonous Plant Guide)*****

There are so many potentially harmful plants to pick from…Let’s start with Lantana…..

It’s beautiful…it’s everywhere…it’s toxic…..

*****(Pretty…Colorful…Poisonous…Lantana)*****

Here’s another one for your consideration…..

…..Deadly Night Shade…I know I’ve covered this before…but it bears repeating…..

Your first warning is in the name itself…..

Plus this plant lives & thrives in rural Florida…..

…..especially the shady moist areas…(like all of our farm)…..

I’ve weeded and filled…empty feed bag…after feed bag…..

…..and still it comes back…stronger…bigger….and better…..

Honestly…sometimes I think…that if it weren’t for the Night Shade…we wouldn’t have any greenery in our backyard at all…..

…..and then there’s the Trumpet Vine…some are okay…some are not…..

My children’s school bus driver told me it’s poisonous…after I’d tucked a blossom behind my daughter’s ear while waiting at the bus stop…..

…..(they’ll let anybody be a Mother)…..

I’ve heard it makes a poisonous tea when steeped…my question is?…Why Steep It?…..

***(Trumpet Vines Bad Affects)***

Pretty flowers…but…..

…..and if you check closely…they’re entwined around most of the trees here…..

Then there’s Poison Ivy…who doesn’t have Poison Ivy?…but ours have vines the size of your thigh…..

…and let’s not forget the very dangerous Creeping Indigo…..

Creeping Indigo is extremely bad in pastures where horses graze…..

Horses suffer permanent damage after eating the stuff…..

*****(Creeping Indigo and Livestock)*****

*****(Creeping Indigo Dangers)***** 

Oleander is another plant that you see growing everywhere here…Why people use it for landscaping?…I do not know…..

*****(Oleander—What’s To Love?)*****

…..a few years back at Busch Gardens…..

…..I remember reading an article about one of their dolphins dying because it had eaten some ornamental oleander blossoms or leaves that had blown into the tank…..

…..I would expect that bush got transplanted (or torched) immediately…..

With all these bad plants to watch out for…our Acacias had to find and eat moldy hay…common moldy hay…..

…..go figure?…(however he does regret his decision)…..

Between the insects and amphibians and reptiles and animals and plants…..

…..Sunny Florida is a challenge to call home…..

 

 

 

 

#floridasummer #floridavacation #buschgardens #creepingindigo #deadlynightshade

#floridatourismboard #floridapoisonousplants #bottlenosedolphins #oleander #trumpetvines #