pwplee

I have wild rabbits roaming my yard this winter, they've eaten all my
lupin seedlings -- which is okay with me. Are rabbits immune to the
poison or is lupins' toxicity a myth?

timothy

As far as MRS.M.Grieve is concerned, the anwser is no. Follow this and
read for your self:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/lupins50.html
Enjoy your day.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com

timothy

As far as MRS.M.Grieve is concerned, the anwser is no. Follow this and
read for your self:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/l/lupins50.html
Enjoy your day.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com

stephen henning

Seeds, pods & young leaves are very poisonous.* Risk of poisoning is
low due to unpalatability of the toxic Lupins. No known treatment and
the effects are generally reversible. The poison is quinolizidine
alkaloids. However, even bitter lupin can be made edible with a
debitering process that involves soaking and rinsing.
Such seed are actually used to make flour for pasta, dairy product
substitutes and soy sauce. Rodent and some other animals seem to
tolerate the poison fairly well, much better than humans.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to rhodyman@earthlink.net
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

timothy

After reviewing Mr.Henning's post, I dug a bit deeper into this. I really
hate to spread incorrect/false information, so I googled over an hour on
this subject (besides, it's starting to snow again... nothing better to do
eh?)

As far as I can see, it's a bit of a sticky question. Yes and no or
depends would be my new answer. Agirculture and Agri-Food Canada states it
best:

http://res2.agr.gc.ca/ecorc/weeds_herbes/fam48_e.htm

"Because of the difficulty in identifying lupines, literature reports of
poisonous species are difficult to interpret. Moreover, under varying
seasonal and edaphic conditions, the toxicity of particular plants can
change, making prediction of poisoning uncertain. Consequently, all lupine
species in Canada must be considered potentially poisonous, but only four
species are included in this inventory."

So if you have the complete latin name of your lupin, then we would be
able to determine for sure.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com

salty thumb

Maybe the rabbits just have enough sense to eat them when they are not
poisonous.

timothy

This quite possible... or they're starving and they'll eat anything at the
moment. Or this lupin is not poisonous or less poisonous due to the
season..etc. It's really hard to say. Guess Pen should keep an eye out for
sick/dead rabbits.

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com

Sometimes it takes a bit of growth to make and store plant toxins in
the tissues so perhaps these rabbits were ok. Also because the rabbits
were not confined with the plants and have a wide and varied diet they
probably escaped harm. When you pen animals up with toxic plants is
when you have the most poisonings because after they graze their
favored plants they have nothing left and tend to consume a large dose
of the toxic plants. A bite of this and a bite of that is far less
dangerous than all of one or another plant at a time.
Lupins are not good for cattle.

pwplee

Thank you, Timothy, for the links. Specifically, the lupins that were
eaten were the 'Russel hybrids'.

Lupinus perennis seedlings were left alone, they were planted a month
earlier. I guess the plants do need more time to become poisonous.
The rabbits seem healthy, still avoiding a neighbour's cat.

timothy

If there's anything out there that will endanger the rabbits, the cats are
it for sure. Thanks for bringing up the Lupin question, I learned a lot.
Have a good day

--
Yard Works Gardening Co.
http://www.ywgc.com