Comment by nemosaltat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nemosaltat | Hacker News Reader

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I was in Cape Cod for a wedding late last year with some friends, and came across what we later learned was a Yew. Some of us had popped into an ice cream shop, and one of the members of my party apparently decided to eat a sweet berry while they waited.

When we came out, we were initially incredulous but they clarified that the flesh of the berry was sweet, but the seed was disgustingly bitter. Which prompted the rest of us to quickly do some research on what this plant was. The mood was initially somewhat light-hearted, however articles with titles like “Why is the Yew Berry sometimes called the Death Berry?” had us on the phone with poison control pretty quickly.

Poison control was very professional, and once they confirmed that it was indeed a Yew Berry that had been ingested, things got pretty serious. Apparently even small doses can quickly cause irreversible heart failure, with death the earliest “symptom” in some cases.

My friend didn’t die— just experienced some terror and gastric distress— the latter likely exacerbated by the terror). No drugs or alcohol or involved, just an impulsive decision, and a sobering reminder about the fragility of life.

One of the other replies in this thread mentions mushrooms. Which reminds of the aphorism: _There are old mushroom foragers, and bold mushroom foragers, but there are no old AND bold mushroom foragers._

Oh wow that was a journey. As soon as I saw "yew" I started internally screaming.

The route that my kids walk to school took us underneath a large yew tree, and the road underneath is often covered in hundreds of delicious-looking pink berries. Since they were tiny they have had to know all about how yew berries look lovely but even one can kill you. What I didn't ever tell them is how apparently the flesh is actually not toxic and is tasty, and it's the seed that will kill you.

The aril (the red flesh of the “berry” surrounding the seed) is tasty, and not toxic. But the leaves, stems, roots, and seeds are poisonous. Our elementary school has evergreen yew bushes growing around it and I taught my children not to eat the seeds. A fellow parent advised use not to eat them because other children might not be so careful.

Are yew rare where you are? Here in Ireland (and also in Britain), they're traditionally found in churchyards (where grazing livestock cannot get at them) and are well known to be poisonous. (Agatha Christie used yew as a poison in one of her novels.)

I read this and thought; I sure hope so if I’ve made it this far in life not knowing. I believe someone’s rectangle plant-identified this particular one as European Yew (Taxus baccata). None of us had encountered it before and this particular plants arils (thanks drjason) were quite strikingly pink.

Apparently, there are others in North America, but mostly not in the Southwest. I lived in the Pacific Northwest about a decade ago which also has a yew (Taxus brevifolia) but I don’t recall if I ever saw the berries.

That said, most folks I know were raised with a baseline of “don’t eat random berries you don’t recognize.”

They're common in landscaping throughout the US. We had some in our front yard, but us kids knew better than to eat random berries. It's painful for me to think that there are people out there without the common sense not to eat random plants they don't recognize.

Folks visiting the desert and distractedly running straight into octillos is just good entertainment. There's not much on the east coast that prepares you for a random shrub to be so hostile. Poisonous berries though, they're everywhere. I'm surprised your fellows made it to adulthood without basic suburban survival skills.

> It's painful for me to think that there are people out there without the common sense not to eat random plants they don't recognize.

I think it's understandable. I live in a city suburb and the foliage around me is pretty much all non-toxic.

I was raised in a rural community and went camping often so we had the lessons of "don't eat random shit, you'll die" drummed into us.

Except for grass and most trees, suburban foliage is often quite toxic. A lot of your ornamental plants are poisonous. Think lilies, foxglove, Solomon's seal, and all the excitement of morning glories. The basic understanding that you don't eat anything you can't identify as edible is important in the suburbs too.

I don't disagree, but I'd say there's not really a big problem with people or kids trying to eat flowers. Foxglove and solomon's seal are dangerous but they also don't grow where I'm at. Lilies and morning glory do grow here, and they are also not terribly dangerous to humans (without eating a lot of them.)

Where I'm at, particularly in the suburbs, there's a distinct lack of things that are tempting to eat (like a berry) and also poisonous.

The berries (but not the seeds!) are apparently edible, and I have myself eaten one without noticing any ill effect. IIRC it was indeed the berries that were used in the Agatha Christie novel, so apparently a mistake.

This is an example that mushrooms unfairly get a bad rap - there are much nastier things in the plant kingdom. Some of them you don't even have to eat to get seriously hurt by, and they're not even that rare (e.g. giant hogweed)

Yikes - I love foraging, but I am extremely conservative about what I eat. This makes me thankful I'm not a bold forager.

My friend has a running joke calling Yew poison berries, but I never looked up the effects before. Great that you called poison control.

while it's incredibly coincidental that you replied to me to say this

>I was in Cape Cod

it give me the chance to tell you, "we say on Cape Cod". There are a number of towns on Cape Cod that you could be in.

Nightshade (atropa belladonna) is another one to watch out for.

And, other nightshades such as tomatoes, bell peppers, and goji berries contain lectins.

I'd add hemlock in there in too. Both are plants you'll see in parks in town. A toddler died here a few years ago because his parent allowed him to play in the big plants with the pretty white flowers. They don't look dangerous and don't have to be eaten to be deadly. Breathing too much pollen is enough, especially for a child.

I'm pretty confident with berries as I've got plenty of experience, but I don't mess with wild carrot or even elderberry as I don't feel I have the knowledge at this point to make it worth the risk. There are just too many lookalikes.

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