What do daffodils buttercups and belladonnas have in common

Calling Daffodils " Buttercups " probably started generations ago when someone's "great-great" called a Daffodil a Buttercup because they're both spring-blooming and usually the same bright-yellow color. Daffodil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus , also called common daffodil or trumpet narcissus, bulb-forming plant in the amaryllis family Amaryllidaceae , widely cultivated for its trumpetlike flowers.

Daffodils are native to northern Europe and are grown in temperate climates around the world. How's it doing? Once one of the most common wild flowers to be found in the English and Welsh countryside, this wild flower declined mysteriously in the mid-nineteenth century. Picking by passers-by doesn't seem to have been the cause - Daffodils are relatively resistant to this practice. All parts of the daffodil are toxic. When swallowed, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

Eating the bulb can cause severe irritation of the mouth and stomach upset. These symptoms are usually not life threatening and resolve within a few hours. Daffodils are poisonous to dogs if they eat the bulbs or flowers, or drink water from a vase with daffodils in. Daffodils are poisonous if eaten. Plants evolved over millions of years with other living creatures.

This association has resulted in plants developing defences for their survival that include poisons in plant parts that help resist damage from creatures that would feed on them.

This protects the plant and allows normal growth, flowering and seeding to occur so that it can reproduce itself. While these poisonous qualities are good for plants, they are not so good for us if we are not aware of which plants are dangerous and know how to handle them appropriately. Many plants contain alkaloids — organic compounds containing nitrogen. There have been approximately found in some plant species, often synthesised in leaves. They do not seem to have any important metabolic function but an ecological function, being toxic to browsing, grazing animals and leaf eating insects.

The first to be isolated was morphine, found over years ago in the Opium Poppy Papaver somniferum. Many plants have oils, latex or sap that contains poisons. Some can cause mild to serious skin irritation causing itching or blistering if handled, but most are dangerous only if ingested or swallowed causing symptoms similar to food poisoning.

A few can cause serious purging, delirium and death. Some plant poisons can be inhaled from smoke or pollen and spores. Poisons affecting the eyes may begin with irritation, pain and even blindness. Other plants have sharp thorns or irritating hairs that damage skin causing pain and leading to infection. Such plants are more dangerous as they age and increase in size.

Humans have been managing plant growth to suit themselves for thousands of years and have been able to select and cultivate the most edible, avoiding dangerous poisonous plants sometimes after fatal tasting results. But humans also enjoy the presence of all kinds of ornamental plants around them and the horticultural industry thrives on providing plants for this purpose.

There are a few indigenous poisonous plants found growing naturally but most poisonous plants are exotic species found in home or public gardens or as weeds. These may be in flower or fruit for many months. Flowering may be from mid-winter through to summer with fruit generally from late spring to autumn. Evergreen species are always in leaf. Narcissus — Daffodils and Jonquils All Narcissus are toxic.

They have been mistaken for onions. Agapanthus africanus and other species The succulent leaves and the bulb of Agapanthus are toxic and cause skin irritation and mouth ulcerations. Sap causing severe swelling on contact with the throat or mouth. Some have caused death.

Hyacinthus — Hyacinth These are well known in gardens but contain very toxic substances. Avoid growing them indoors and if storing, label and separate them from other bulbs.

Convallaria — Lily of the Valley A creeping lily with small, highly perfumed, white bell shaped flowers. The leaves and berries are very poisonous causing nausea, headaches and in extreme cases heart failure.

Vinca major -Blue Periwinkle A garden plant that has been become an environmental weed. It contains at least seven alkaloids including vincamine which affects blood circulation in the brain.

Bouqs suggests steeping edible carnations in wine or candying them to eat later. You can use the surprisingly sweet petals as cake decorations, so long as you cut them away from the bitter white base of the flower. According to Dreisbach's , a wholesale florist, distillers have been using carnation petals as a secret ingredient in making Chartreuse, a French liquor, since the 17th century.

According to the folks down at Tyrant Farms , all parts of hibiscus flowers are edible. Their calyxes, leaves, and flowers can all be used to make things like hibiscus tea, jams, jellies, candies, and delicious sauces for even savory dishes.

Their flavor is tangy, with citrus overtones and a cranberry-like quality. Hibiscus flowers are also packed with vitamin C, which is great for boosting the immune system. According to Eat the Weeds , lilac flavor is hard to put a finger on. This is because the flavor apparently varies from plant to plant. It can range from rather perfumy to slightly bitter — neither of which adds much to a dish.

That said, the distinct almost lemony taste might work with a number of desserts and salads. So long as the lemon-ness is accentuated, via a lemon juice or citrus vinaigrette or zest in a pastry, it should work quite well.

The best edible flowers might actually come from your own garden , actually. May 26, Thomas Jefferson wrote this often-quoted passage to his granddaughter as a means of instructing her on the ephemeral nature of beauty, the normal transitions in life, and the inevitable passage of time. That he used flowering bulbs as his metaphor is fitting. Jefferson often looked to the natural world for descriptive inspiration, and bulbs by comparison, through their unfolding transformations, compress the stages of a human lifetime into a single season.

Bulbs -- often called bulbous or flowering roots in the 18th century -- were common in American gardens by Jefferson's day. Their light-weight, easy portability during dormancy, as well as their ability to be shipped dry, were key factors in their dissemination.

Because they could be layered into boxes, wrapped in pouches, stuffed in satchels, and tucked in pockets, they were ideally suited for the vagaries of transcontinental and transatlantic voyages.

They were, undoubtedly, flowers that caught Jefferson's attention early on. The very first entry in his Garden Book, a diary of gardening activities kept for nearly sixty years, reads: "Purple hyacinth begins to bloom. Bulbs were the primary focus in his "Calendar of the bloom of flowers in ," where he, in a sense, graphically portrays the passage he later wrote to his granddaughter by showing the overlapping sequence of blossoms from the narcissus, jonquils, and hyacinths of March and April to the anemones, ranunculus, and tulips of May and on to the lilies of June.

Tulips at Monticello Tulips were the most frequently mentioned plants in Jefferson's records. Monticello's Curator of Plants, Peggy Cornett explains how prominently they featured in the lives of Jefferson and his family. At Monticello, our flower gardeners are at it October through December every year, planting 8, bulbs to ensure a beautiful bloom season.

Jefferson rarely specified beyond the genus of his bulbs, offering few clues as to the dozens of varieties or cultivars he might have grown.

Yet, there is evidence of the sophistication of his taste and the tastes of the times.