In 2022, a girl just took a photo with a petal in her mouth on the side of the road, and was admitted to the hospital the next day.
What brought her to the hospital were the petals of a flower in her mouth, a dangerous plant called oleander.
It is an ornamental plant commonly found on the roadside in the south, with emerald green leaves and pink flowers, which decorate the streets and alleys of the city.
However, its toxicity is daunting, there is such a scene in "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Concubine Qi gave a cake made of oleander to Zhen Huan.
So why is this plant still on the streets?
"Femme fatale" on the side of the road
How poisonous are oleanders?
If you talk about toxicity alone, oleander is not strong.
This is a far cry from highly poisonous plants such as the mandala, which can kill people with just a few milligrams, the sword poison tree that seals its throat when it sees blood, and the poisonous mushroom that hides in the forest and is difficult to identify.
But what oleander fears most is that it is covered in poison.
Oleander contains a variety of toxins, some of which are even fatal, the largest amount of which is cardiac glycosides oleandrin, which contain every inch of the oleander body, and it is because of this that the branches of oleander are poisonous, the petals are poisonous, the flowers and leaves are poisonous, and even the burned ash is poisonous.
3 grams of oleander contains toxins that can kill people, and just a few leaves can cause severe poisoning, even if the juice from the broken flower stems can cause the skin to ulcerate when it touches the skin.
It can be said that it is very difficult to prevent.
In fact, there are many cases of oleander hurting people every year.
In 19, a little boy was hospitalized for poisoning because he drank tea made from oleander leaves.
In 2013, in the East Lake Zoo in Quanzhou City, an alpaca died of foaming at the mouth because of mistakenly ingesting oleanders picked by tourists.
In addition, in some places such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, there have been cases of death or hospitalization due to the use of oleander branches as chopsticks.
There is even a folklore in the West that says that an army was resting and cooking when it burned the dead branches of oleander and wiped out.
There are not many such folklore, and even in the United States in the last century, there is a story that is not much different.
In the popular "The Legend of Zhen Huan" a few years ago, An Lingrong told Zhen Huan that oleander cake would hurt people and lead to miscarriage.
So from this point of view, not only don't pick the wildflowers on the roadside, but even don't pick up the branches and leaves on the roadside.
So why is such a poisonous plant still widely cultivated?
Difficult to replace option
Oleander is not a native plant to China, but has been brought from overseas.
According to historical records, oleander is a plant native to India, Iran, Nepal and other places.
It was introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty, because the temperature in northern China was cold at that time, oleander was extremely cold, and the weather in the north was not suitable for survival, so it could not be spread, but it was only planted as an ornamental plant in some manors in the south, and even had only one transliterated name.
Until the Qing Dynasty, because the shape is more similar to peach blossom and bamboo, it has the name oleander.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the development of industry, it gradually began to be widely cultivated in some cities in the south.
And the reason why it can be widely planted in China, as a street tree in the city, and as an ornamental plant in garden squares. There are still a lot of advantages.
1. Strong ornamentality
Oleander has a great advantage, it is evergreen all year round, blooms twice a year, the flowers are very beautiful, and the color is also very gorgeous.
Therefore, it is very suitable for planting in the city to decorate the city, and many people plant oleander in an open place for decoration.
2. Environmental protection
The second feature is that it can absorb pollution very well.
Oleander can absorb sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide and other polluting elements, even heavy pollution such as nuclear radiation.
Oleander can also slowly absorb pollution and improve the environment, and even soilless oleander can absorb nitrogen and phosphorus, improve eutrophication of water bodies, and purify the water environment.
Oleanders planted on both sides of urban roads can well absorb the pollution caused by automobile exhaust, and to a certain extent, they can isolate motorized lanes and non-motorized lanes to protect the air.
So if you see a lot of oleanders planted in the green belt of a certain city, it means that the city is or has been more polluted, but as long as the oleanders are there, it is always a good thing for the environment.
3. Adapt to the environment
In fact, oleander is a plant that has few things to be afraid of, except that it is not very cold-tolerant.
Drought, salinity, smoke, dust, oil and so on can be carried down.
This is because oleander leaves have a thick waxy layer on the surface, and ordinary pollution cannot break through this waxy layer at all, even in bad weather such as acid rain, which can corrode buildings.
The survivability of oleander is very strong, and it is also very trouble-free, it is exaggerated to say that the seeds can live on the ground, which greatly saves manpower and material resources.
4. Medicinal value
In the Qing Dynasty's "Luchuan Materia Medica" there is a record of the medicinal use of oleander, oleander leaves have the use of "analgesia, blood stasis, treatment of bruises, swelling and pain", the medicinal value is very strong, and it has an irreplaceable role in some prescriptions.
However, due to the strong toxicity of oleander, it is very strict when used.
epilogue
In fact, there are not a few plants that can absorb pollutants, and the single ability of oleander is not the strongest, so it can only be said that the comprehensive strength is good.
But the most powerful thing is that oleander has a good ornamental value under such a premise, and it can bloom even all year round in the warm south, and it looks good with a long flowering period.
This makes oleander the choice of many cities.
So what do you think about oleander?
Information source: Guangming.com June 6, 2023 Report on oleander - "380,000 oleanders in Nanning City are in full bloom, citizens should be careful not to touch them at will"
Source: Hunan Provincial Administration for Market Regulation April 16, 2024 Report on oleander - "Risk Reminder on Toxic Wild Plants"
Source: Yangtze Evening News June 66, 2022 Report on oleander - "Girl was poisoned and sent to the hospital after taking pictures with oleander in her mouth, note: some Internet celebrity flowers should also be careful of health risks"
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