Don't eat the daffodils

[PaxVobiscum]

I'm surprised the human race has lasted this long without such helpful advice in the past. Even as a five year old I knew the different between an onion and a daffodil bulb.

...and a noun and an adjective?

(Sorry!)

 

[TheKnightWho]

I'm surprised the human race has lasted this long without such helpful advice in the past. Even as a five year old I knew the different between an onion and a daffodil bulb.

That would be because someone told you the difference...

 

[Deerfold]

I'm surprised the human race has lasted this long without such helpful advice in the past. Even as a five year old I knew the different between an onion and a daffodil bulb.

I'd guess most 5 year olds don't.

I did, but then my dad was a greengrocer.

We live in an increasingly urban world with many people knowing less and less about where their food comes from.

Presumably we need to start telling them. If that starts in the supermarket as "do not eat this, it's a daffodil and poisonous" then that's fine.

Of course many flowers *are* edible and I've enjoyed flowers in a meal on a few occasions so it's not as if you can simply assume you shouldn't eat any flowers.

 

[Spamcan81]

My Dad was a fishmonger and my Mum was a draper yet they found time to tell me what was edible at what wasn't.

 

[Flamingo]

My Dad was a fishmonger and my Mum was a draper yet they found time to tell me what was edible at what wasn't.

Fish is, cloth isn't?

 

[TheKnightWho]

My Dad was a fishmonger and my Mum was a draper yet they found time to tell me what was edible at what wasn't.

Good for them.

If you went to China (where a lot of food is very different) and just started picking things off what looked to be food shelves then I think you'd appreciate if there was a warning that something wasn't food, and worse would poison you if you ate it.

Not everyone grew up in this country, not everyone has a good education of what is and isn't edible. Boastful stories about "common sense" at 2 months in the womb is a bit pathetic and totally misses the point.

 

[Yew]

This is the first image on google when i search for daffodil bulbs

And here is a Shallot

Pretty similar arent they, especially when loose, in the same aisle (seriously, why do some stores do that, I can understand potted coriander and parsley, but flowers?) I can see how it would be easy to mix the two up, or think the bulb was a different variety of shallot or something.

 

[Oswyntail]

Just back from Tesco, where I bought a big bag of onions - a paper sack with a mesh hole on the front. Approximately three feet away, in the same aisle, were daffodil bulbs, being sold in a paper sack with a mesh hole on the front. They hadn't got the memo!

 

[PaxVobiscum]

Pretty similar arent they, especially when loose, in the same aisle (seriously, why do some stores do that, I can understand potted coriander and parsley, but flowers?) I can see how it would be easy to mix the two up, or think the bulb was a different variety of shallot or something.

Indeed - not such shallot of difference.

(I'll get my coat)

 

[ExRes]

This is the first image on google when i search for daffodil bulbs

And here is a Shallot

Pretty similar arent they, especially when loose, in the same aisle (seriously, why do some stores do that, I can understand potted coriander and parsley, but flowers?) I can see how it would be easy to mix the two up, or think the bulb was a different variety of shallot or something.

Have you ever tried putting a shallot in your buttonhole ?

 

[Spamcan81]

Good for them.

If you went to China (where a lot of food is very different) and just started picking things off what looked to be food shelves then I think you'd appreciate if there was a warning that something wasn't food, and worse would poison you if you ate it.

Not everyone grew up in this country, not everyone has a good education of what is and isn't edible. Boastful stories about "common sense" at 2 months in the womb is a bit pathetic and totally misses the point.

I have been to China a number of times and food wise I have returned unscathed. I visited a number of street markets and found them most interesting but I did give the frozen rats a miss.
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Have you ever tried putting a shallot in your buttonhole ?

Nope. Nor have I tried putting a daffodil bulb in it.
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Personally, I think those 63 people will find plenty of other ways of landing themselves in A&E, like running with scissors, headbutting a wall, playing football in the middle of a road (I did once report that to the police, and they were playing it in the busy street running directly along the side of the police divisional HQ / main station!), or similar.

To me, it makes as much sense as the large notices I've seen attached to scaffolding declaring "Warning: Scaffolding erected!" (I'm not kidding, some H&S person decided that scaffolding needed to carry a warning to tell you that it is scaffolding, and not a giant robot bird building a nest up the side of a building).

Or the dot matrix motorway signs displaying the message "sign not in use." 63 people in five years - what percentage of the population is that?
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Somebody will come on here and agree with it, you just know it.

And they have arrived in droves.

 

[Busaholic]

I have been to China a number of times and food wise I have returned unscathed. I visited a number of street markets and found them most interesting but I did give the frozen rats a miss.

Yes, best eaten defrosted.

 

[TheKnightWho]

I have been to China a number of times and food wise I have returned unscathed. I visited a number of street markets and found them most interesting but I did give the frozen rats a miss.

I was referring to the supermarkets.

The point I was making is that if you're unfamiliar with British food, happen to be in Tesco and don't have a great grasp of the English language then you don't deserve to die of daffodil poisoning.

 

[Deerfold]

63 people in five years - what percentage of the population is that?

What percentage does it need to be before you start doing something about it?

 

[Murph]

What percentage does it need to be before you start doing something about it?

A damn sight higher than 63 in 5 years, multiple orders of magnitude higher before I think it's worth spending any effort on it! I'm pretty sure that you'll find a similar or higher number of cases of people managing to set themselves on fire by mis-handling petrol & diesel, sticking fingers into a light fitting to test if it's live, crossing a trunk road dangerously, etc. People need to take personal responsibility for their actions, even if that means learning the hard way.

 

[Deerfold]

A damn sight higher than 63 in 5 years, multiple orders of magnitude higher before I think it's worth spending any effort on it! I'm pretty sure that you'll find a similar or higher number of cases of people managing to set themselves on fire by mis-handling petrol & diesel, sticking fingers into a light fitting to test if it's live, crossing a trunk road dangerously, etc. People need to take personal responsibility for their actions, even if that means learning the hard way.

I'm sure I see warning notices at places that sell petrol and diesel and on electrical products and had comprehensive instructions at school about crossing roads.

At school no-one mentioned daffodils to me.

I'm not sure quite how people are supposed to take responibility for dangers they are unaware of.

Unless you're just thinking "I'm alright, Jack".

 

[Murph]

I'm sure I see warning notices at places that sell petrol and diesel and on electrical products and had comprehensive instructions at school about crossing roads.

At school no-one mentioned daffodils to me.

I'm not sure quite how people are supposed to take responibility for dangers they are unaware of.

Unless you're just thinking "I'm alright, Jack".

Between school and responsible parenting, I certainly learned that it's dangerous to eat random plants or parts of plants and fungi. I might not have been aware of any specific dangers from daffodils, but the general education and warnings about the dangers of eating random plants was sufficient to make me think that they were probably not safe to eat.

 

[Deerfold]

Between school and responsible parenting, I certainly learned that it's dangerous to eat random plants or parts of plants and fungi. I might not have been aware of any specific dangers from daffodils, but the general education and warnings about the dangers of eating random plants was sufficient to make me think that they were probably not safe to eat.

And if they're sold right next to edible plants without clear signs, why should people think they're "random plants" and not another varity of onion?

And how about those not lucky enough to have had responsible parents or a good school? Can they go hang?

 

[ralphchadkirk]

I wonder what's cheaper, a bit of public health advice about the location of daffodil bulbs in shops, and advising the Chinese community to be careful about what they eat, or treating people for severe vomiting, acute abdominal pain, hypotension, convulsions and coma?

 

[TheKnightWho]

Between school and responsible parenting, I certainly learned that it's dangerous to eat random plants or parts of plants and fungi. I might not have been aware of any specific dangers from daffodils, but the general education and warnings about the dangers of eating random plants was sufficient to make me think that they were probably not safe to eat.

Good for you, as we've said to other posters on this thread. That doesn't apply to everyone.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I can think of a wide variety of other common plants which, when ingested, may lead to nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. Some such as laburnum has been widely 'known' to be poisonous to humans - despite the lack of any recorded deaths from the consumption of laburnum.

It's only a few years since researchers in Copenhagen suspected that the ingestion of daffodils appeared to relieve the experience of depression.

So to learn that they are now less good for us, is, well, depressing.

 

[fowler9]

I guess to be fair putting none edible plants right next to the food stuffs is rather daft considering the stupidity of people in general.

 

[Murph]

It's only a few years since researchers in Copenhagen suspected that the ingestion of daffodils appeared to relieve the experience of depression.

So to learn that they are now less good for us, is, well, depressing.

That just says to me that it's important to use a standardised dosage provided via a pharmacist or a professional herbalist. There's plenty of medicinal substances which are harmful if you go beyond the therapeutic dosage. Warfarin / coumarin is a good example, highly beneficial at a couple of different levels for therapeutic usage, but leads to a fairly horrible death at high levels, and is also used as rat poison.

Either get your therapeutic daffodil extract from a qualified professional, or make sure that granny is always careful when preparing her herbal remedies. A quick graze in the nearest flower bed is not recommended.

 

[Busaholic]

Despite the original posting and the incredulity of the poster that anyone could defend Public Health England's asking supermarkets to separate daffodils from fruit and veg, it appears that most responders feel this is a rational request based on the number of cases of poisoning caused by mix-ups, and I would concur.

There are a number of cases each autumn of deaths or leaving people severely disabled from eating either toadstalls or one of the toxic mushrooms, relatively few in number but with lethal results. In France, you can take such produce to a local pharmacy which will check toxicity. Another example of the nanny state or a useful public service? You may be able to guess my view.

 

[Groningen]

In the Second Worldwar during the hungerwinter of 44/45 tulips bulbs were often used for food for human beings. Not because they liked it, but there was nothing else to eat. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944

 

[ralphchadkirk]

It's only a few years since researchers in Copenhagen suspected that the ingestion of daffodils appeared to relieve the experience of depression.

They didn't find it relieved depression, they found it can cross the blood-brain barrier. Which is entirely unsurprising given that ingestion causes nausea and vomiting.
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I can think of a wide variety of other common plants which, when ingested, may lead to nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. Some such as laburnum has been widely 'known' to be poisonous to humans - despite the lack of any recorded deaths from the consumption of laburnum.

Laburnum has the potential to be quite nasty through it's cholinergic action, however you are right that there are no recent deaths from Laburnum.