Native Plants
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A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Thursday - May 01, 2008
From: Sault Ste Marie, MI
Region: Midwest
Topic: Poisonous Plants
Title: Information on Royal Empress tree
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Would like to have some information on the royal empress tree; it is a non-native tree.ANSWER:
As a non-native, the Royal Empress Tree is not in our Native Plant Database. At the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center we concentrate on plants native to North America. However, Paulownia tomentosa is not only non-native but is considered invasive in many parts of the country. That we ARE interested in. For some background, here is a previous Mr. Smarty Plants answer concerning this tree. There are a number of links in that previous answer to give you information on care, etc. As you can no doubt tell, we are NOT in favor of planting invasive trees. The USDA Plant Profile does not show it as growing in Michigan; the state may just be too far north, but it does grow in some northeastern states, so possibly it could survive Michigan winters. But do you want it to?More Poisonous Plants Questions
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November 16, 2011 - We found tiny, grape-size white melon-like fruit on a vine, with tomato-like/cucumber-like seeds. The leaves on the vine were similar to grape or cucumber leaves, but not spiny. They were behind our...
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Toxic effect of mulberry fruits and sap
August 18, 2009 - What would be the toxic effect of the unripe fruit of the mulberry tree or the white sap?
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Is Bushy Knotweed carcinogenic from West Grove PA
September 06, 2012 - Is the invasive Bushy Knotweed / PORA3 / Polygonum ramosissimum toxic to the extent that the spores are carcinogenic?
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Are bald cypress cones toxic to dogs?
October 27, 2013 - Are bald cypress tree seed pods poisonous? to dogs? We just got a rescue dog and we go out in the yard with her. But now that we are into fall and the pods are falling. She goes right to them. Are...
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Can the buds and flowers from my Rhodendron tree be toxic to my puppy? Yes
March 23, 2009 - I recently got a new 7 week old puppy that keeps trying to play with and eat buds and flowers off my Rhododendron tree. Could this be toxic to him?
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