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Expert Reveals The 5 Poisonous Plants You Should Never Have In Your Home

Peace lily.

If you didn't know already, there are many health benefits to keeping houseplants inside our homes. They are known to replenish oxygen levels and purify the air, creating a sense of calm which can relieve stress, boost creativity and improve sleep. However, as beautiful as they are, it should be known that not all plants should come through the front door, especially if you have young children or pets.

To find out more about this, I spoke to Andrei Newman, garden design expert from Designer Home Spas, who warned that not every plant is safe to have indoors. He expressed how important it is for parents and animal lovers to do their research before adding plants to their homes, especially as some plants can cause respiratory issues, vomiting and even death.

Before we start, have a look at some more of our houseplant guides:

How to keep your houseplants alive when you go on holiday

6 strange ways to keep your houseplants alive & thriving

5 things you should know before adding houseplants to your bathroom

1. Easter Lily

easter lily

The sweet-scented Easter Lily is a beautiful plant that can make any home inviting to others, but ingesting a small amount or even rubbing up against it can cause death in cats and serious health issues in children.

Andrei says "All parts of the Easter Lily plant are poisonous to children and even ingesting the pollen could cause vomiting, stomach cramps, dizziness and collapse. If you find that your little one has ingested an Easter Lily take them to the ER immediately. The plant can be fatal to cats too, while dogs are more likely to cause internal discomfort."

2. Hedera Helix

Hedera Helix

The Hedera Helix plant is a climbing plant that can be found both indoors and outdoors. While the plant can add life to your home, if you have children or pets you will want to avoid it.

Andrei says "As a climbing plant, the vines can often drape down which can cause your children or pets to become interested in them. The Hedera Helix is a plant that if ingested can cause severe vomiting and breathing problems."

3. Peace Lily

peace lily

The Peace Lily plant is often used in rooms with low lighting as it can thrive on two hours of sunlight a day. This makes it a popular choice with homeowners, but you shouldn't own one if you have children or pets.

"Eating one of these plants can cause a lot of pain and swelling in your lips and throat. Whilst adults will know not to eat plants, smaller children may see the attractive leaves and take a bite..And cats and dogs aren't safe either. Ingesting any part of the plant can lead to inflammation in the throat" warns Andrei.

4. Daffodils

daffodils

The common daffodil is a symbol of spring and can undoubtedly improve the mood of any room, but bringing daffodils indoors isn't something you should consider if you have small children or pets living at home.

Andrei says "A daffodil can cause serious health conditions such as increased heart rate, high blood pressure and death in small children, and can cause fits in dogs and respiratory issues in cats."

5. ZZ Plant

zz plant

The ZZ plant is a good plant for beginners because it thrives with very little sunlight and water, making it an ideal for those with very little time. However, Andrei has suggested otherwise:

"Whilst this plant is beginner friendly it shouldn't be owned by parents or animal owners as they can cause a wide range of health issues ranging from stomach ache and vomiting" he said.

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Aaron Horrell

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The halo of yellow in this photo is a circle of very small flowers on top of a plant called a zinnia. When this common garden flower grows, it shoots up a stem that produces a beautiful flower at the highest point. A field of multicolored zinnias is a wonderful sight...

A Missouri rainbow (9/3/22)

The rainbow trout was first introduced into Missouri in the 1880s. The cold water of spring-fed south central Missouri streams was believed to be a perfect place to try to establish this fish that thrives in cold, clear water. In the years after 2000, Missouri developed two of its own strains of the rainbow trout, the Missouri Strain and Missouri Arlee Strain. ...

A very tiny mushroom (8/27/22)

I found this little mushroom the morning of Aug. 21. It was growing alone in a shady area near a pond. I found several kinds of mushrooms on this morning. But this one was the most interesting one to me. My research revealed that it is commonly known as a Japanese umbrella mushroom. This kind of mushroom is found in Japan, Europe and North America...

An easy one to see (8/20/22)

This is one of North America's easiest mushrooms to find. If you frequent the Missouri woods during summer, you have probably seen one of these big red mushrooms. It is an amanita. There are several kinds of amanita in the world. The most common one in Missouri is called fly amanita as well as fly agaric. It will most likely make you very sick if you eat one. My advice is do not eat it!...

Are those flowers? (8/13/22)

While walking a trail through a wooded area recently, I came upon a small area covered with a beautiful kind of grass. The sun lit up the grass nicely. My photo here does not show the leaves/blades of the grass. It shows the actual flower heads of a special kind of grass known by several common names: wood oats, Indian wood oats, wild oats, spangle grass and even fishing grass...

The feather-legged fly (8/6/22)

You may know this little fly if you are a gardener who raises squash or pumpkins. You may have seen the feather-legged fly and not realized it is good to have this fly in your garden. It is a parasitoid, which means it lays its eggs on insects such as squash bugs and stink bugs. When the feather-legged fly's eggs hatch, the larvae feeds upon and kills its host stink bug, squash bug or other plant-eating insects...

Caught in a web (7/30/22)

I found this juvenile five-lined skink inside a ground blind July 24. How this poor, unfortunate little lizard got tangled in a spider's web I do not know. I photographed it and watched it for about 15 minutes. It was helplessly caught. Nature is not always pleasant, but all critters must find their own way to survive. ...

A tiny streak of blue (7/23/22)

I held my hand about 6 inches on the opposite side of this beautiful little insect to show its size. This is a common blue damselfly. It is native throughout much of the United States. The common blue damselfly is often mistakenly called a dragonfly. The way the wings are held when at rest is the most notable distinguishing factor. A dragonfly's wings will extend perpendicular to its body when it sets. A common blue damselfly's wings will lie lengthwise above its long thin abdomen...

Reading the evidence (7/16/22)

You can probably identify the poison ivy in this photo. Poison ivy has three leaflets on each leaf stem. Some other plants have similar three leaflet leaf configurations. The clusters of little pea-sized green berries further and conclusively identify this plant as poison ivy...

Is that a mouse? (7/9/22)

You might see one of these little, fast-moving animals and think you just saw a mouse. But this little mammal isn't even related to the mouse. Mice are rodents, as are squirrels and rats. This is a shrew. Shrews are related to moles. There are more than 300 kinds of shrews the world over. ...

A little orange butterfly (7/2/22)

Here you see one of North America's small butterflies. Its range extends from parts of Mexico at the south, across most of the United States and deep into Canada. This is a pearl crescent butterfly. It has a wingspan of about 1 3/4 inch. The dark reddish brown, varying orange and parchment white patterns are similar yet different from one pearl crescent to another. The dots on the rear wings circled by orange and the brushed parchment fringes at the edges of the wings are constants...

Baby! How small the toad (6/25/22)

I took this photo June 18 while on a short hike around a local lake. A young girl had noticed several tiny "frogs" hopping on the damp shaded ground. In a short time she caught one and showed it to me. She had captured a baby toad. It could easily sit within the circumference of a dime. ...

A black bluegill? (6/18/22)

Can you guess why this bluegill is so dark? Do you think it is because the pond from which it came had muddy water? I caught this bluegill and several others June 12 in clear water. Only this 9-incher and one other the same size were black. Both were males. ...

Baby soil centipedes (6/11/22)

I found these little critters while preparing dirt to plant gourds along the garden fence. One orange/brown adult centipede and a clutch of probably 30 creamy white babies were hiding in a small space under a dirt clod about the size of my fist. The dirt clod crumbled. The adult quickly ran for cover. I quickly grabbed my cellphone as the babies began dispersing and got this photo of about half of them...

Moving the family (6/4/22)

This is a native deer mouse. The orange/brown flank on this mouse distinguishes it from its relative, the white-footed deer mouse. Both mice have white undersides and white feet, but the white-footed deer mouse is gray. I took this photo the morning of May 20. The deer mouse was moving its newborn babies to a new home. I only observed two babies and was lucky to see the mother mouse carrying the first one away behind a rock wall. She soon came back, and I was able to get a few quick photos...

A Missouri state symbol (5/28/22)

I was out scouting with a couple friends early on the morning of May 22, after heavy rain crossed Southeast Missouri the day before. We spotted this adult bullfrog in wet grass and approached it from three sides. I thought this would cause the frog to remain in place, and it did. One of my friends was able to very slowly stalk the bullfrog and catch it with his bare hands as I videoed the catch...

Did you see a butterfly? (5/21/22)

This bird surprised me May 15, while I was at Mingo Wildlife Refuge. It was flying here and there around my truck as I stopped momentarily to enjoy the scenery. I think the butterfly or grasshopper it was chasing must have gone under my truck. This bird is a great crested flycatcher. Suddenly, it flew up from the ground beside my truck and landed on the hood. I was ready with my cellphone...

That's a green bug! (5/14/22)

This bright green insect is called a six-spotted tiger beetle. It is native to North America. After wintering in the ground as a small gray larva, the six-spotted tiger beetle emerges in spring when the ground warms and wildflowers begin to bloom. This insect can run fast and fly fast. It is carnivorous and eats other insects, including ants...

A red fox pup (5/7/22)

I took this photo the late evening of April 30. The weather was stormy and a tornado watch had been issued for much of Southeast Missouri. I knew where a litter of red fox pups was hanging out, and after work I headed there. The wind was gusting to near 20 miles per hour, and I used the wind to my advantage. Wind concealed noise I made during my approach as well as help hide my slow movements by keeping leaves and bushes in near constant state of motion...

Seeking Mrs. Three-toed (4/30/22)

I captured this image Saturday morning, April 23. This is a fine color combination that came together nicely at the edge of my driveway. A native butterweed plant (which can grow quickly in spring to nearly 2 feet tall) had been knocked down by the push mower a few days earlier, but was not cut off. Wet weather allowed it to bloom...

Who could you be ... You be? (4/23/22)

This is a juvenile great horned owl estimated to be close to 2 months old. My biologist son took this photo April 12. Great horned owls, along with bald eagles, are the earliest of birds to lay their eggs in Southeast Missouri. Because they are large bodied birds, they are able to lay their eggs in February and still incubate them...

Red or green (4/16/22)

These are the springtime flowers of the red buckeye tree. It is native to Southeast Missouri woodlands. The leaves and blooms will come forth at the same time. The red of the blossoms and vibrant green of the leaves are opposites on the color wheel. This means they contrast one another very well. This little tree that grows to about 12 feet tall gets its "buckeye" name from its seeds that resemble a deer's eye...

Flowers in a treetop (4/9/22)

Spring is a glorious time. Woodland wildflowers begin to take their turns blooming. From low growing spring beauty and Dutchman's breeches to the bushes of red buckeyes and fragrant sumac, wonderful new life is breathed into the forest. Most of us though haven't seen too many close up flower buds of the tall trees in the Southeast Missouri woods. ...

A beautiful salamander (4/2/22)

This little fellow is a natural beauty. It is called spotted salamander as well as yellow-spotted salamander. I found this one in the woods under leaf litter near a small pond. The spotted salamander can grow to a length of close to 10 inches and live 20 years or more. This one is about 6 inches long. Because its skin is slick and will dry out easily, this salamander spends most of its life underground out of sight. It eats worms, spiders and other woodland insects...

A signal for disaster (3/26/22)

You may not be able to see the water in this photo, but it is there. I could see water running in this roadside ditch and hear the water as it fell into the hole. This is a sinkhole. A sinkhole is caused by water seeping downwardly through porous soil on a regular basis. ...

Snow and flower (3/19/22)

I took this photo Saturday morning after a late winter snowfall. The purple flowers sticking out of the snow belong to a wildflower called dead nettle. It is native to Europe and Asia, but has become naturalized throughout much of North America. The dead nettle is related to a much taller plant called the stinging nettle. ...

First wasp of spring? (3/12/22)

This little fellow is about one inch long in body length and has two antennas that are equally as long. It is common in Southeast Missouri but not often seen or recognized for what it is. This is a kind of wasp called an ichneumon (pronounce it itch-new-mon)...

A sideways icicle (3/5/22)

A late winter ice storm is a common freezing rain occurrence in Southeast Missouri. Every year doesn't have one, but at least a couple per decade can be expected. The level of severity is different with each one. The freezing rain builds up ice on everything it touches. In the woods it can become serious enough that limbs will break, and sometimes the ice will take down large trees...

My three suns? (2/26/22)

I took this photo at 4:48 p.M. Feb. 20. The sun is between what I will call two false suns. They are light refractions caused by the setting sun and ice crystals in the cirrus clouds. These brightly shining "secondary suns" are commonly called sun dogs. ...

A little brown bat (2/19/22)

You probably wouldn't expect to see a little brown bat in February unless you went inside a cave. Bats are usually seen flying in the shadowy, early morning, dimming light before sundown and during overcast days with poor visibility. Little brown bats fly when they are searching for flying insects. Insects don't fly when temperatures are below freezing. This is one reason why bats in Southeast Missouri have evolved to not fly during cold winter days...

Jumping ducks (2/12/22)

PUXICO, Mo. -- Be prepared to spend time walking, waiting and hoping the ducks will cooperate. Dress appropriately for the cold and don't lose confidence. On this morning, I took several second-rate photos of ducks before I finally got this one. These mallards were swimming in the thick, flooded grass. ...

Cold-weather casualty (2/5/22)

These are the remains of an armadillo I found in the woods last Sunday. It was half-covered with leaves. There are 10 or more different kinds of armadillos spread across South and Central America. The only one found in the United States is called the nine-banded armadillo...

Inside the millipede (1/29/22)

Archeologists have dated the millipede to have existed at least as far back as 400 million years during a time called the Silurian Period. Fossil remains from that time show that millipedes of that day were more than 6 feet long. Whether they could kill and eat small dinosaurs is anybody's guess...

Frost on a window (1/22/22)

This frost formation was on the outside of my truck window the early morning of Jan. 11. Rain a day or two earlier caused there to be enough humidity in the air to produce this frost. Air temperatures must go below freezing and there should be no wind in order for this kind of frost to form. It is anybody's guess which direction the little ice crystals will go and what kind of fancy designs they will make...

Is it just a hole in the ground? (1/15/22)

It's mid January. It's cold outside. Where have the animals gone? Holes in the ground are very important for the survival of much of our wildlife. This photo might make you think of a black bear because they are known to hibernate in caves and holes in