They probably taste awful, and aren t easily digested, but poinsettias aren t poisonous, said Claudio Pasian, assistant professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State. Back in 1971, researchers at Ohio State tested the toxicity of poinsettias by adding the plants to a liquid solution, mixing it all in a blender, and then feeding the concoction to 55 rats. The researchers, writing in the journal Toxicon, concluded that rats, when given extraordinarily high doses of various portions of the poinsettia, show no mortality, no symptoms of toxicity nor any changes in dietary intake or general behavior pattern. Still, the myth persists among many people. Sometimes myths are that way, Pasian said.
Reality is irrelevant to whether the myths continue.
While they are associated with Christmas, poinsettias can remain in bloom into spring if they are properly cared for. The factsheet database is a search engine that enables professional and amateur gardeners to find information on nearly any plant or crop they might be growing. We re similar to search engines like Yahoo or Alta Vista, but we focus on information directly relating to the care and growth of plants, said Tim Rhodus, associate professor of horticulture and crop science at Ohio State and Web manager of the site. If you search for apple in our database, you ll never get linked to Apple computer sites. The database indexes more than 40,000 plant-related pages from land grant universities and governmental institutions across the United States and Canada.