FYI: Crocus aren't considered poisonous...

Some well-meaning soul recently went through the PDB and marked all the Crocus entries as poisonous in the "danger" section. The problem is Crocus are not poisonous (Colchicums, aka "false Crocus" are poisonous and deserve the dire warnings.)

For quite a while, I've been VERY reluctant (you might even say staunchly opposed) to a "not poisonous" option in this section, because I'm not qualified, nor are most of our users, to unequivocally state that a plant is not poisonous, and I'd much rather remain silent than give someone a false sense of security.

Unfortunately, the way the checkboxes work, I can't simply uncheck all the boxes in a section. So my choice was to add a "N/A" option in this section. I'm about halfway through the not-so-fun task of editing each of the 40-some Crocus entries.

Please (please, please, please, PRETTY please) check your facts before you add details to the PDB. Don't get me wrong - I GREATLY appreciate everyone who helps add details (there are 65,000+ entries, if each one of them needs even ONE checkbox checked off, it'd be several months of Sundays before I could get them all done! Considering many entries need EVERYsection completed, any and all help is MOST welcome.) But as this case points out, it's not easy to "unring the bell" so please be sure you have the correct information before you proceed ;o)

In a poisonous plants class that I took many years ago we were shown a book that listed common asparagus as poisonous because a rare person who was allergic to it had terrible swelling from comin in contact..

Oleander is poisonous but so bad tasting that I find it hard to believe that someone could eat enough to be hurt.

The there is the plant known as water hemlock (in the carrot family) that si so poisonous that putting the cut end to ones lips is fatal.

Anyway poisonous is relative. Those things that are not likely to be fatal are one thing. The seriously dangerous are quite another.

There is a difference between "poisonous" and someone having a possible "allergic reaction" to it. I grow plants that are poisonous, but I also know better than to eat them, as in most houseplants. If someone freely munches on everything they have in their garden, well.......... let's just say I find that scary.

Maybe there could be a section on the PDB "allergy possibilities" (better wording would be fantastic, ha ha - I'm too tired to think right now) where people can list that some can be allergic by touch or ingestion, etc...... by some people, but not all, just like peanuts.

I'd like to add weight to Terry's request above, now some of the genus entries are very, very large, it's a biiiig task to go back through the lot and change the checkboxes! If you're unsure of anything you can always ask here :)

I'm not sure we ought to go down to the graduations of toxicity and reaction, in that sense virtually everything is poisonous or causes a reaction in someone somewhere as George illustrated with the person and Asparagus. Even a well known herb such as sage can cause poisoning symptoms if over done and I feel the comments boxes are a good place to explain the bigger picture.