Hi Garak, All plants in the Amaryllis Family (Narcissus, Lycoris, Hippeastrum, Clivia, Crinum, Boophone, Haemanthus, and many many others) contain toxic alkaloids. The degree of toxicity varies greatly from genus to genus, but don't let anyone or anything try eating any amaryllid. My cats over the years have rarely if ever nibbled on any of my amaryllids. We do try to keep a pot of growing grass sitting around somewhere in the house at all times. Jim On Fri, Nov 4, 2016 at 3:37 AM, Garak <garak@code-garak.de> wrote: > Hi list, > > I'm about to adopt a young tomcat into my house and my heart, and I've > heard that they may be inclined to nibble on "Amaryllis", which is said to > be poisonous to them. Now, this information came from such part of the > population who most likely meant Hippeastrum when saying Amaryllis, but I > want to be sure not to put the little fellow into danger. So I've got 2 > questions: > > 1.: I know Boophone to be poisonous to stock, but what about the rest of > the family: I've got nerines, brunsvigia seedlings, Rhodophialas, Lycoris, > a neighbor has a clivia, and there are of course Galanthus and Narcissus > everywhere around, not a garden without them in southern Germany - i guess > if the latter two were a problem, there'd be dead cats all around the > place... > > 2.: How strong is the urge to try them? I know cats need grass to deal > with their own hair which they consume during cleaning themselves. I'm > comfortable with locking away amaryllids inhouse, but as the little fellow > will be allowed to "roam the lands", is there any need to protect plants > and animal in the garden? I mean there's plenty of grass around there, as > well as other plants that I know to draw the attention of cats (did you > know they go mad for kiwi plants?)... > > -- > Martin > ---------------------------------------------- > Southern Germany > Likely zone 7a > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > -- James Shields jshields46074@gmail.com P.O. Box 92 Westfield, IN 46074 U.S.A.