This bush is called Heavenly Bamboo, or Sacred Bamboo, but it's not bamboo. Or heavenly. In fact it's deadly poisonous. See here. Cedar Waxwings have been known to die in flocks due to eating the berries.
Why do we plant non-native poisonous plants when there are so many wonderful native species?
We grow that plant here too. I didn't know it was toxic but lots of plants are ... usually doesn't matter because most of the time things don't eat them, unfortunately your Waxwings do. Here in Australia there is lots of angst about native vs non-native but the truth is our natives plants for the most part are not very exciting in the garden unless for example we plant ones from Western Australia on the East Coast. Then the purists get into a fuss about local provenance because even native plants outside their local habitat can become weeds or overtake local varieties. I love the native plants but am very happy to have exotic plants in my gardens (except for our native garden where I am still trying to decide to stay with local plants of zing it up a bit with ones from elsewhere).
ReplyDeleteI can't recall ever hearing of it before.
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