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Date: | Wed, 17 Dec 1997 11:36:47 +0000 |
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There are several reports of poison honey, and there are a number of
plants which produce very rank flavoured honey which is supposed to
be rather unpleasant to eat. I'll have to look up the article for the
particulars but I have an account of a couple of honeys which render
the eater unconscious or cause hallucinations. I assume they would
have to be monofloral and there have to be a substantial stand of
whatever forage in one place for it to be a problem. Spring honey in
itself is not poisonous, because that simply covers a vast range of
plants flowering in the early months of the year. The statement of
the plant species would have to be far more specific. Rhododendron
ponticum, which is a naturalised exotic in parts of Britain, is
supposed to produce poisonous honey, but there are a few acres of it
near me, and sudden death or malaise induced by honey is not a local
issue at all. Senecio jacobea, or ragwort, is a weed that has spread
rapidly in recent years and that is reputed to give an unpleasant
flavour to honey, although this diminishes over time. I have a story
from roman times where honey was used as a non lethal disabling
agent. Combs of one kind were left in the route of an invading force,
and troops who ate it became uncoordinated and unable to fight for a
time. A meandering answer to the question on spring honey, I think
the answer is that poisonous honeys exist but they ar eno t
necessarily Spring honeys.
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