As harmless and ornamental as they seem, indoor plants are listed in the top ten causes of accidental poisoning, especially in children. They do bring about a bit of greenery to your living space; but if not chosen correctly, they could be potentially lethal.
One of the most common indoor plants is dieffenbachia. It requires only a minimal amount of sunlight to survive, and do not release much carbon dioxide during nighttime respiration, making the plant an ideal choice for indoors. But, these plants are, actually, one of the most dangerous of indoor plants.
For starters, there’s always a risk of suffocation while maintaining indoor plants. Plants do photosynthesize, but only during the daytime. During the night, they respire by taking in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, just like any other organism. This causes an extra buildup of carbon dioxide over what we expel ourselves. But this problem can be solved with proper ventilation, and it is not this which makes dieffenbachia a potentially lethal one.
Plants do not expel much waste from their bodies as animals do. They tend to store most of their waste materials within their bodies itself. The fluid wastes are generally deposited in the large vacuoles of the palisade cells in the leaf blade of older leaves, and the solid wastes are crystallized and deposited in specialized cells of the older leaves so that when the leaf falls, the plant could get rid of a considerable amount of waste from their body. One of the most abundant of these crystalline forms is calcium oxalate, the same stuff that makes up kidney stones. These crystals could occur in a few different forms; Druses are star-shaped formations and raphides are needle-like and are also used to protect the leaves against herbivores.
If the leaves of this plant are chewed on, which does happen especially in homes with children, they release these crystals like darts onto the soft epithelial tissue lining the mouth. In fact, doing so much as damaging the leaves by folding or crushing them could trigger the release of the crystals. These crystals are severe irritants to human skin, and cause allergic reactions. If they attack the mouth, they could cause so much swelling that the person could not speak, hence giving the name dumb cane to dieffenbachia.
If the leaves are ingested, which is also reported to have happened several times, it could cause severe scarring and injury to the internal lining of the digestive tract and could cause injury to the delicate anal sphincter when it is expelled from the body.
After coming into contact with dieffenbachia, washing the exposed surface with water would reduce the effect of swelling caused by these crystals. Despite the severe symptoms, this plant is less likely to kill if proper care was taken.
Though having a few innocent plants growing in your living room may not be life-threatening, we should always take care to choose the right plants to grow indoors. And more importantly, we should be sure that these green friends are child safe.
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