moles, voles, and other devourers of geophytes.

J.E. Shields jshields@indy.net
Fri, 16 Dec 2005 12:44:37 PST
Hi all,

John and Jim,  plants in the amaryllis family, like Narcissus and Lycoris 
for example, contain toxic alkaloids that are presumably there because they 
deter predation.  It's also why we may eat fried onions but not fried 
daffodils!

Jim Shields
in cold and snowy central Indiana (USA)



At 01:25 PM 12/16/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>.........
>John Bryan asked why some bulbs are devoured and not others. One reason is
>that some contain bitter compounds of magnesium (or is it manganese? I
>always get those mixed up.) which make them unpalatable to all but starving
>critters. Certain lilies such as Lilium henryi and its hybrids, L. hansonii
>and its hybrids, are good examples.
>
>Jim McKenney

*************************************************
Jim Shields             USDA Zone 5             Shields Gardens, Ltd.
P.O. Box 92              WWW:    http://www.shieldsgardens.com/
Westfield, Indiana 46074, USA
Tel. ++1-317-867-3344     or      toll-free 1-866-449-3344 in USA



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