confused about wisteria/broom

ok, we have a lovely wisteria, in its 4th year and blooming marvellously! i smelt the flowers and my 8yr old yelled "dont do that! its poisonous!" she said a teacher had told her the yellow plant that looked like that at school is poisonous. so I told her that her teacher probably meant a Broom tree.

ive just googled pics for yellow broom and i dont think thats what i thought it was. :cnfs: when i told my daughter Broom, i mean the trees that have lovely yellow flowers, like wisteria flowers. are they Broom trees, or do I have it wrong? and are they poisonous? because i'm pretty sure wisteria arent.......are they???

 

Hello RandyRos

I think you're talking about laburnum trees, which have long racemes of flowers which drape down in the same way as wisteria, but are bright yellow. All parts of the plant are harmful, but the seeds are particularly poisonous. Fans of Daphne du Maurier will remember that in My Cousin Rachel, the plot hinges on whether the mysterious Rachel has murdered her husband using laburnum seeds and is about to do the same to her cousin Philip ...

The following link gives some useful information:-

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/ate/childrenshealth/202775.html

As far as I know there is no problem with either wisteria or broom.

 

PS have just looked up broom and wisteria and the seeds of both can cause problems when ingested. But then, many things can do so if you are daft enough to go around eating your garden. There was a recent case in which a visitor was giving a talk at a local primary school. To get the attention of the kids, he ate a daffodil flower. The children thought this was hilarious and later went out in the garden and did the same, with unpleasant results.

 

PPS See also Roder's lovely pictures of laburnum in full flower (What's Looking Good in May thread.)

 

yes! Laburnum! thats it! i've admired them for years and always wanted one, how typical of me to forget the name :dh:

i shall inform my daughter later that mummy got it wrong :lollol:no doubt she'll go and tell her teacher!

I will also make sure I tell the kids not to touch the wisteria seeds (not that theyre daft enough to anyway, but I'll make sure)

thanks for your help :ntwrth:

 

When our daughter was a child she kept rabbits. They loved to eat a few young wisteria leaves