One of our most favorite domestic plants is, actually, poisonous, but few people know about this.
The savage tribes of native Africans that during the last century lived at the Tanganyika Lake and along the Zambezi River have highly valued the strophanthus plant.
The white milky sap and especially the seeds of the strophanthus are extremely poisonous.
The arrow tip, anointed with the strophanthus' sap, struck dead both people and wild animals. The death was almost instantaneous, as this poison stops the heart activity.
The seeds of the strophanthus are still being gathered to make a powerful poisonous substance - strophantine, which is used in the medicine. Undoubtedly, strophanthus is one of the most poisonous plants.
And its, you can say, "brother", lives in our room and we do not suspect this at all.
This "brother" looks like a shrub. Its long stems have elongated, lancet-like, leathery, opaque-looking leaves that grow in groups of three.
It blooms with beautiful pink-red, more rarely white, remotely rose-like flowers.
The petals are curled in the buds, which is why the entire Apocynaceae family belongs to the Gentianales order.
The flowers are hard to make sense of. The five-leaf cup holds a funnel-like flower with scales and five bending petals. The five stamens have long, featherlike filaments. The stamens' anthers form a cone around a pillar.
Try to find all of the parts of this original flower.
The fruit of this plant are two boxes that stand apart from each other. The seeds have white, feathery filaments.
What is this plant?
It is the oleander, known by everyone. Keep in mind that it has poisonous properties. Animals and birds that eat the oleander's leaves perish. You can see dying and dead flies even on its leaves and flowers.
When pruning the oleander, try not to spray juice into the eyes and do not rub them with your hands. After working with the oleander always wash your hands. Remember: the oleander is poisonous - it is related to the strophanthus!
Asia Minor is considered the oleander's homeland. It is also widespread in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Its' beautiful, tall shrubs with fragrant flowers decorate the waterfronts and the boulevards of the southern coastal cities.
In the wild, oleander can be found all over the Mediterranean, in Algiers, Andalusia and Italy. If in August you look in those places down from the mountain onto a river valley, then the eye will be attracted by the strangely zigzagging pink ribbons among the emerald greenery. It is the copses of oleanders along a river's shores. They grow as the willows do in Russia, along the shores of rivers, streams, ditches, reaching four meters in height. At the same time, the oleanders, via the composition of their leaves, are adapted to summer droughts, something that is typical for many subtropical plants that grow in moist places. The leavers of the oleander endure even the prolonged dry, hot winds - the sirocco.
The Latin name of the oleander - Nerium oleander, probably connected with the name of the mythical sea nymph Nereis, means that it grows alongside water (Neros - moist). The species name, "oleander", probably is composed from two words: "oleo" - "smelling" and "Andros" - that is the name of one of the Greek islands.
The result is a beautiful name - Nereis from the fragrant island of Andros.
A flowering oleander is indeed so fragrant that even while being in a room it causes powerful headache and even dizziness.
The oleander is one of the most ancient decorative plants. It was grown in the gardens of Greece and Rome. The oleander is depicted in the bouquets and the garlands on the frescoes of ancient Pompeii.