Re: [CH] Spray
Brent Thompson (brent@hplbct.hpl.hp.com)
Thu, 18 May 2000 11:41:58 -0700
> Have great bed of Pyracanthea [sp?] I started last year to have a source of
> organic pesticide.
>
> Seem to have lost the directions on how to make it into a spray. AS it is a
> poison, I'm a bit hesitant to experiment.
This is the first I've ever heard of pyracantha being poisonous. I know
the fruits are not only not poisonous, but completely edible by humans (and
other animals), as is common for plants in Rosaceae. Not counting the
cyanide found in seeds (and even green parts) of some species in Rosaceae,
I don't even recall having heard of instances of poisonous plants in that
family.
Maybe you're supposed to try to extract cyanide from the seeds to make a
poison -- though this seems an awful lot of trouble given the tiny size of
the seeds (plus as inplied above, I imagine they probably contain no
cyanide, or if any then hardly any).
Pyrethrum contains insecticide, but this is a different, unrelated, plant.
--- Brent