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Pretty but poisonous flowers of Tenerife |
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Written by Steve Andrews
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 Tenerife is a real paradise for people who like plants because there is an incredible range of exotic and endemic species growing on the island and very many flowers of amazing beauty, however, there are also plenty of “femme fatales” that whilst they look visually attractive harbour a poison within. These are the flowers, which are good to look at but it is best to leave them alone.
One of the most commonly planted poisonous plants is the attractive Oleander (Nerium oleander), an ornamental evergreen shrub with pink flowers, although there are other cultivar strains in white, yellow and red. The Oleander brightens up many a border in parks and gardens but it is a very poisonous plant.
 The Angel’s Trumpet is a very unusual and exotic flower seen on Tenerife with large blooms that stand out and is commonly planted for its ornamental value around the island. Angel’s Trumpet grows as a small tree and is the name of more than one species of Brugmansia. There is the Red Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia sanguinea), the White Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia x candida) and the Salmon or Orange Angel’s Trumpet (Brugmansia versicolor), which has the largest funnel-shaped flowers of them all, often reaching nearly 2 ft. All of the Angel’s Trumpet species contain tropane alkaloids such as atropine and scopolamine, which are very poisonous and produce hallucinations.
 The related Thorn-apples (Datura spp) or Devil’s Weed species have smaller trumpet-shaped flowers and are also very poisonous. The Thorn-apple (Datura stramonium), which has jagged toothed edges to its leaves, and the similar, but in general larger, Downy Thorn-apple (Datura innoxia) with straight edges to its leaves, are often found growing as weeds on waste ground and in other places including on roadsides, on roundabouts and abandoned farmland of Tenerife. The Thorn-apples have spiky green fruits that bear a slight resemblance to those of the Horse Chestnut.
 The Castor Oil Plant (Ricinus communis) is a member of the Spurge family or Euphorbiaceae and like most of these is poisonous. The Castor Oil Plant grows into a small tree or large bush and is found all over the island of Tenerife both as an ornamental garden plant and all over waste ground and elsewhere it has managed to seed itself. Castor Oil Plants come in bronze-leafed and reddish varieties besides the normal green type and have glossy palmate leaves as well as flowering stems that bear spiky seed pods in clusters. Castor Oil Plants contain the very deadly poison ricin and it is said that as small an amount as three of the beanlike seeds if eaten by a child can prove a fatal dose.
All the above plants could prove to be a very real danger, especially to children, so it is a wise precaution to know about them. Fortunately, although there are very many dangerous plants on Tenerife, the number of poisonings caused by them is extremely rare.
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Tenerife Island 
