SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Mistletoe and holly may make the house look jolly, but they can also make children sick if swallowed, poison officials warn.
"Plants and products usually not seen or available during the first 10 months of the year account for many problems during the holiday season," said Lee Cantrell, interim director of the California Poison Control System at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center.
Most people do not realize all parts of mistletoe and the leaves and berries of English holly are toxic, and their ingestion can be harmful, Cantrell said, noting swallowing 20 or 30 holly berries can cause serious poisoning in children.
Some nontoxic seasonal alternatives include Pyracantha, Eugenia and California holly as well as Christmas cactus and pine cones, although eating them is not advisable.
Christmas trees, such as pines, spruces and junipers, can cause upset stomachs and even in small amounts may make mouths sore, Cantrell said.
Carol Ball of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Safe Kids Georgia advises parents to keep amaryllis, holly, mistletoe and other poisonous decorative plants out of children's reach.
The same goes for some Christmas decorations, such as angel hair or spun glass, which can make skin and eyes smart, Cantrell noted. He also cautioned parents to take precautions with ornaments imported from other countries, which may be colored with a lead paint and prove toxic if ingested. Tinsel manufactured before 1972 contains lead, although the main concern with its ingestion is obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract, Cantrell said.
Although not poisonous, the milky sap from poinsettias can irritate skin. The plant, which has become a staple of Christmas décor, belongs to a flower family that exudes white latex when a leaf is broken, which can be particularly problematic for people with latex allergies, although not to the extent of the torment poison ivy or oak can wreak, said David Trinklein, associate professor of horticulture at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
The poinsettia has become so popular, it has its own day of celebration. Congress declared Dec. 12 National Poinsettia Day. The date marks the death, in 1851, of Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, who introduced the Euphorbia pulcherrima, as the plant is officially known, to America in 1828.
Since that time the plant has bloomed from the traditional blaze of velvety red into a rainbow of colors that now include yellow, cream, pink, white, burgundy and even such exotic hues as salmon, orange, purple, coral and peach. The varieties' official names are no less colorful: Christmas Feelings, Marblestar, Champagne Punch, Strawberries and Cream, Shimmer Pink or Snowcap White. They come in an array of shapes and sizes, from 3-inch pots to fireplace-size versions with 10 to 15 flowering bracts, or leaves, to intricately created topiaries, with a color and pattern -- solid, spotted or striped -- to complement just about any décor, says Richard Cowhig, assistant professor of ornamental horticulture at Delaware Valley College in Doylestown, Pa.
The wide range of colors is a result of genetic breeding that manipulates the seeds of several varieties to form a new creation, more rarely of a mutation due to cross pollination in nature or, in the case of the blue poinsettia, spray painting, Cowhig said.
It took the poinsettia more than a century after coming to America to get established as a Christmas flower, usurping the rose, which held the position until the 1950s.
Despite its popularity, the flower has an undeservedly poisonous reputation, with half of Americans erroneously believing it is toxic, according to a survey conducted by the Society of American Florists.
"It is a common myth the industry has been trying to dispel for decades," Trinklein said. "Poinsettias are certainly not poisonous."
The roots of the misinformation go back to 1919, when a poinsettia leaf was wrongly blamed for a child's death. Research since then has exonerated the plant. In fact, a 50-pound child could eat more than 500 leaves and show no serious signs of toxicity, according to Poisindex Information Services.
"There are a lot of things that we drag into the house at Christmas time that are toxic," Trinklein said. "We don't think about it much because no myths surround mistletoe, which is actually quite toxic. Ivy leaves, from the holly and ivy, are somewhat toxic. Yet, it is the poinsettia that has the reputation for being the sinister plant at Christmas time."
Mistletoe can be injurious to trees as well as humans, said Canadian researchers who have spent five years investigating the "kissing plant" traditionally hung in doorways by those hoping for a Christmas buss. What to the ancient Celts and Vikings was a sacred healing plant that bestowed fertility, brought good fortune and averted evil is in fact a tree-endangering pest, they said.
Dwarf mistletoe, a minuscule evergreen parasite found on conifers in Canada, can significantly reduce a tree's life expectancy, and the species that prefers pines can result in weakness and susceptibility to attack by micro-organisms and insects such as beetles.
Unlike other mistletoe species, which depend solely on bird droppings for dissemination, dwarf mistletoe blasts its sticky seeds up to 16 meters away to propagate, said Dr. Cindy Ross, assistant professor of biological sciences at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.
"Dwarf mistletoe is a serious forest pest," Ross said. "Its effects can change habitat, compromise timber quality, create a fire hazard due to dead trees, and weaken a tree to the extent that it dies from other factors."
Its deadly discharge poses a threat to neighboring trees, particularly in single-species stands like lodge pole pine plantations.
"It's ironic that the plant associated with love and wellbeing at Christmas can be the kiss of death for the trees we've come to associate with the same holiday," Ross said.
Christmas time brings us good cheer but also certain plants to fear.
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