Bark-sniffing? Check. Mushroom-licking? Yep. Indumentum-licking? Not yet, but maybe next time. Apparently, the hairs on the underside of the leaves of northern Labrador tea give a buzz when licked (see the indigenous knowledge section), which opens up an entirely new way of experiencing rhododendrons that I hadn’t considered before. Perhaps I should add it to the duties of the work-learn student who is helping with documenting our rhododendron collections at UBC this summer…
It is doubtless that the toxicity and effects of licking rhododendron leaves is understudied, so please don’t do it until some enterprising graduate student safely investigates. The toxic compounds in rhododendrons are well-known: sixty or so neurotoxins classified as grayanotoxins. Two of the early onset symptoms of being poisoned by grayanotoxins are “change in conciousness” and paresthesia (tingling or numbing sensations on the skin), so it seems likely it is one of these compounds involved in leaf-licking’s buzz. While human fatalities due to grayanotoxins are apparently extremely rare, there is an arm’s length list of symptons and effects. For an approachable article on grayanotoxins and rhododendrons, read Grayanotoxins: Of Rhododendrons and Mad Honey via Nature’s Poisons (“Mother Nature is out to get us”).
Even if I desired to add indumentum-licker to the list of words I use to describe myself, it will be some time before I am once again in the presence of Rhododendron tomentosum subsp. decumbens. This is a species of (northern) Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and Eurasia, growing in “bogs, muskeg, tundra, raised beach ridges“. The plants in today’s photographs are growing at the lowest parts of the alpine-tundra environment surrounding Pink Mountain’s peak in northern British Columbia.
They are also mirroring the decumbent part of their name, i.e., spreading along the ground, with the extremities held upright.
It must be in the air. I just purchased a sacred lotus planting and the nice Craigslist seller was kind enough to post the botanical name “Nelumbo nucifera”. I have been looking for a Lotus plant of any kind, for a water feature in my yard. A flowering lotus was the important criteria and I have been looking for some time. Either the plant was not identified correctly or the price was way to steep. This seller included 6 healthy plants in a nice Costco pot for $50 with a single bud. I got it home and then googled the botanical name for ideas of care, etc. I did not know that people smoked the leaves and soaked the flower petals in wine for an opium like affect. What a bargain. The bud just opened today and I am amazed at it’s beauty. Mahalo, Brynn
Practically every part of the lotus is used separately in medicine in India, China and adjacent nations. The plumule (the leaf embryo in the seed) is particularly potent. The tuberous rhizomes, of course, as food.
The stimulation from Labrador and Greenland tea is usually attributed to ledol. This compound is also potentially lethal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledol
Both grayanotoxins and ledol seem to occur in the species.
how do deer get away with eating rhodendrons? the same way woodchucks get away with eating wild foxglove?
Different mammals, different physiologies.
If you want to read about a study on the matter, see Mountain laurel and rhododendron as foods for the white tailed deer. For perspective, it’s a 1931 study–seems cruel by today’s standards.
I enjoyed the humor today, and I like plants that have that decumbent habit, especially among rocks like this, so it’s a win-win, thanks Daniel!
Thanks, Lynn!