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poisonous plants

22 9:46:13

Question
We are re-landscaping our yard and will be getting a pair of bunnies soon.  They will spend time in the house and outside.

In the lead-in to getting the bunnies we have fenced off the yard so that the local wild bunnies can no longer get in the yard, and also to prevent our new bunnies from getting out.


I have checked online for plants that are toxic to bunnies but I still have some questions.  We have 2 categories of plants:  
*  Plants we already have.
*  Plants we are going to purchase and plant.  

Two plants seem to be on the "toxic" list.


Is Laurus Nobilis (bay leaf) the same as the laurel plants listed on the http://adoptarabbit.org/articles/toxic.html toxic plant list?  We were going to put one in our yard, because I love cooking with fresh bay leaves.  We don't have one now.

"Chrysanthemum" is listed on that toxic list, but there are a lot of different kinds of chrysanthemum plants.  Are they all toxic?  We have had many, many wild bunnies in our yard to date and have about 10 mature chrysanthemum frutescens "Dwarf yellow" plants that have been there for 12 years.  They actually look like daisy plants.  Each is about as big around as a barrel.  The bunnies hide under the Chrysanthemum plants all the time.  No adverse affects and no dead bunnies that we have ever seen.

Please let me know what you think about having these two plants in our yard.

Thank you!
Cassandra

Answer
Dear Cassandra,

I would not worry about putting either Bay Laurel or Chrysanthemum in the yard.  While both contain aromatic compounds "designed" by evolution to ward off insect herbivores, bunnies would have to eat rather large amounts of them to suffer any harm.

Chrysanthemums contain pyrethrins, which are somewhat toxic.  But you'd have to eat a LOT of them to have serious results.  Plus, rabbits sometimes can detoxify plant secondary compounds (depending on what those compounds are) and suffer less harm than a dog or cat would if they ate the same thing.

Finally, I'd bet that the rabbits will not be particularly attracted to those plants, especially if you provide them with plenty of much tastier treats.  We have indoor/outdoor bunnies, and they seem to naturally avoid the ones that are not good for them (we don't have anything terribly toxic), preferring things that have an aroma they find appealing.

Plants send messages that way, too.  :)

Hope that helps.

Dana