Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,038
Just a friendly reminder guys and gals to keep an eye on the kiddos as they play outside this summer. You don't have to venture into the woods to find danger here in the south, just let your yard go for a week or two because of low rain fall and then go on vacation. Though I do live surrounded by woods. I have been catching up on my yard work as I can get to it since we got back, and yesterday I found this just a few feet away from my daughter's play area. Horse Nettle bears a close resemblance to tomatoes because both are members of the nightshade family. This can be dangerous for kids who like tomatoes because the difference is that tomatoes usually won't hurt you (unless you have an allergy to them) where as the toxic alkaloids in Horse Nettle could kill a human being. The plant pretty much screams "leave me alone" with all of it's wicked thorns, but kids don't always pay attention to such things and the sub-shrub hight of the nettle plants put them right on a small childs level of vision.
