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Plant Life By Valerie Easton
So Pretty, So ScaryThose good looks may be hiding the ugly truth of the venomous and voluminous
IT ISN'T THE thorns, contortions, sickening odors or even carnivorous habits of plants that should frighten us at Halloween, or any other time of year. Prickly barberries might rip your clothes, and skunk cabbage could offend your nose, but they're nothing compared to the real dangers posed by plants that are poisonous or invasive. It's the venomous plants and those that run amok that should be sending chills up our spines. With the exception of slavering Audrey in "Little Shop of Horrors," even the carnivores of the plant kingdom dine on nothing much larger than insects. And if you look closely or sniff cautiously you can detect plants that are barbed or stinky. But invasive and poisonous plants rarely come with warning labels. Invasive plants are non-natives that humans have introduced to an environment accidentally or on purpose. The plants evolved in other parts of the world, so aren't kept in check by the insects and diseases that would curb rapaciousness in their homelands. Freed from natural enemies, these plants spread so voraciously that they threaten natural areas and wildlife. That's the larger picture, and all of us who have watched English ivy smother our parks appreciate the seriousness of the threat. In our own gardens, we so often fail to recognize invasiveness until some pretty little plant like sweet woodruff turns into an infestation. How many of you have actually planted, in your own gardens, Arum italicum, Solomon's seal or Euphorbia 'Fireglow'? I've watched each of these lay claim to vast areas of border, encroaching mercilessly on less vigorous plants. I loved the tri-colored Houttuynia cordata 'Variegata' until it swallowed my side yard. Give this groundcover six months and it cries out "Forevermore" as surely as Poe's raven quoth "Nevermore." 
Now In BloomSorbus hupehensis 'Pink Pagoda' is a mountain ash that combines showy fruit and fiery color, the two great glories of autumn, in one small tree. Bred at the University of British Columbia, it's well-suited to our climate. 'Pink Pagoda' has blue-green foliage that turns bright orange and red as the weather cools. If not first devoured by birds, its multiple clusters of rosy pink berries are standouts in the late-October garden. ILLUSTRATED BY JULIE NOTARIANNI What's tricky is that a gardening friend with dry soil might unknowingly press a bit of gooseneck loosestrife on you, because in her garden it's a mannerly perennial with charmingly curled flowers. But let it touch root to ground in wetter soil, and it'll be off and romping so that you'll spend years of your life trying fruitlessly to eradicate it. Kind of like bamboo or akebia. Dr. Sarah Reichard of the University of Washington Botanic Gardens is on the front line guarding against invasives. When I asked which plants were worrying her these days, she has a ready list. She's seen the willowy Verbena bonariensis invading grasslands in Victoria, Australia, which has a climate similar to ours. We all know what a ready self-seeder this one is. Unfortunately, she sounds on the verge of condemning one of my favorite grasses. "The Mexican feather grass (Nasella tenuissima) seeds around here in gardens and has been a pest in other places, so I am watching it," Reichard says. Then there are all those familiar plants that work their mischief through poison. We think of the obvious nettles, but beware clipping euphorbia without wearing heavy gloves. Its sap can cause an ugly, red, itching rash. Since we're enamored with mixing edibles and ornaments these days, it's a good time to brush up on which plants are poison before we nibble from our gardens. If you read British mysteries, you're well aware of the potential of swiftly murdering an enemy (actually, it's most often a husband or wife) with a dose of the highly poisonous monkshood (Aconitum napellus), a delphinium look-alike. Every part of the monkshood is so deadly it was used on spear tips, yet when I look it up in the Sunset Western Garden Book there's not even a warning. Children, puppies and kittens are all too frequently poisoned in their own gardens, if not seriously, thank goodness, by a wide variety of common garden plants. You no doubt are harboring such toxic specimens as azaleas, lobelia, hellebores, castor beans, foxglove, wisteria, delphinium and larkspur. Doesn't it give you renewed faith in the clever duplicity of the plant world to realize that a poison brew bubbles in the sweetest-smelling, prettiest flowers like lily-of-the-valley and daphnes? All the more reason to beware, and choose your plants with care. Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net.
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