Plants Poisonous to Dogs & Cats
When planning your garden, take care to avoid plants that can be harmful to your pets. The list compiled below is by no means complete, but focusses on the more common plants found in Australian gardens. Google images will assist in providing visual images to confirm your plants identity. Sadly, some of our most beautiful and useful plants are deadly to our pets so it pays to be aware of the risks and keep your pets well away from them.
- Anemone or windflower (A. coronaria)
- Bulbs (onions, plus all the spring-flowering favourites, such as daffodils, tulips, jonquils, and snowdrops)
- Caladium bicolor (indoor foliage plant)
- Castor oil plant (Ricinus communis)
- Chalice vine (Solandra maxima)
- Cherry tree (Prunus serrulata)
- Clematis (the large-flowered hybrids)
- Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster glaucophylla)
- Cycads (seeds on female plants)
- Daffodils (Narcissus varieties)
- Daphne (various)
- Delphinums
- Devil’s ivy (Epipremnum aureum)
- Dicentra (Dicentra spectabilis)
- Dieffenbachia
- Euphorbias (poinsettias, Euphorbia characias ssp. wulfenii, etc)
- Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)
- Golden Robinia (R. pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’)
- Hellebore (Helleborus orientalis)
- Hemlock (Conium maculatum)
- Holly (Ilex varieties)
- Hydrangeas
- Indoor Plants: many are poisonous to pets, so it’s wise to keep all indoor plants out of reach of pets of all ages.
- Iris
- Jerusalem cherry (Solanum pseudocapsicum)
- Jasmine
- Lantana (L. camara, the common one)
- Lilac (Syringa varieties)
- Liliums: All parts of the plant are particularly toxic to kittens and cats, causing kidney failure and death; reactions
are not quite so severe in dogs.
- Mountain laurel (Kalmia varieties)
- Mushrooms (not clear which ones)
- Nightshade (Solanum nigrum)
- Oaks (Quercus varieties – the acorns are toxic to pets)
- Oleanders (Nerium oleander, Thevetia peruviana)
- Philodendron
- Pine (eg, savin, Juniperus sabina, also several others)
- Poinciana (not the tropical tree, but the shrub Caesalpinia pulcherrima)
- Potato plants and green potatoes
- Privet (Ligustrum varieties)
- Pyracantha
- Rhododendron (including azaleas)
- Rhubarb (primarily the leaves)
- Snowdrops & Snowflakes (Leucojum)
- Sweet peas
- Solandra maxima (chalice vine)
- Stephanotis (Madagascar jasmine) (consumption of the seed pods is especially deadly to dogs)
- Strelitzias (Strelitzia reginae, S. nicolai)
- Sweet peas
- Toadstools
- Wandering Jew (Tradescantia albiflora)
