What's looking good in May

Good afternoon @Spruce my friend and thank you,no still the Tamron 70 x 300 VR Telephoto lens,keep on all the time now,saves me bending my back

 

I think you've definitely mastered how to put that lens to proper use, Woo

 

And a strange sky that night.

 

I can't help it, longk, they're just so pretty and fit so well into a chaotic Cottage style garden like mine. They're so dainty and simple.......makes them one of my favourite self seeding plants.

 

Now, you see, that's a very strange plant to like in the garden as Cuckoopint, as it is, is poisonous although not as poisonous as other garden plants.

Though the clump of orange berries formed in the autumn shines out like a beacon in its natural, woodland habitat, their acrid taste and speedy irritation of the mouth means the plant causes little serious harm.

Though long believed to contain saponins given the names aronin(e) and aoin(e), work in 1965 found only the oxalates found in Arum italicum. These needle-shaped crystals can irritate the skin, mouth, tongue, and throat, resulting in throat swelling, breathing difficulties, burning pain, and stomach upset.

The orange berries are quite attractive but their acrid taste and the tingling in the mouth which begins quite quickly, mean that large amounts are rarely ingested and serious harm is unusual.

The plant is said to be one of the most common causes of accidental plant poisoning based on attendance at hospital A & E departments though this may be because the irritation of the tongue and mouth is more likely to result in hospital attendance than a simple stomach upset from, say, eating a daffodil bulb thinking it to be an onion.

A study in Switzerland found only one incident, in 29 years, where Arum maculatum produced 'serious' poisoning.

Incidents
In the UK during a four year period, from 1996 to 1999, there were 23 visits to hospital resulting from poisoning by plants from the Arum genus. None resulted in serious harm. The only genus recording a higher total was the Solanum with 31 cases.

A young child ate some Arum berries which her grandmother thought were deadly nightshade. She was given a block of salt to eat to ensure she vomited them up. All she remembered was the appalling taste of the salt.

A young woman decided to eat a leaf from Arum maculatum. Even though she spat it out when she found how unpleasant the taste was, her mouth and cheeks became irritated and sore for a couple of days.

Folklore and Facts
In Theatrum Botanicum, John Parkinson’s 1629 herbal, there are two recipes for Arum maculatum. In one, small pieces of the root are mixed with lettuce and endive. In the other, the dried root is powdered and sprinkled over meat. These recipes are recommended for the ‘unbidden unwelcome guest to a man’s table’ because ‘it will so burne and pricke his mouthe that he shall not be able either to eate a bit more or scarce to speak for paine’.