Skip to content

Your account

With an account, your progress (modules read, XP, badges, cards, notebook, pack, challenges) follows you on every device. Without one, it stays in this browser.

or
Toxic☠️ To avoid

🌿 Stinking hellebore

Helleborus foetidus · Ranunculaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Smells like a mess, lethal to digest” — the foul smell when crushed is your first warning.
Stinking hellebore — Helleborus foetidus

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

An evergreen perennial of limestone undergrowth, easy to recognize by its dark, deeply divided fan-like foliage and pale green, red-rimmed bell flowers that bloom at the end of winter, making it one of the year's earliest blooms. The entire plant releases an unpleasant smell when crushed, hence its name. Eating it is toxic across the board, having been used historically as a dangerous purge and even as a poison.

  1. evergreen, leathery leaves divided into narrow fan-arranged leaflets (palmate)
  2. drooping bell-shaped flowers, pale green edged with purple-red, grouped in a terminal panicle
  3. characteristic stinking odor when foliage is crushed
  4. stout stem, leafy along its entire height, unlike the Christmas rose which has a bare flower stalk
Size30-80 cm
Floweringfévrier-avril
Habitatlight limestone undergrowth, scrubland, wood edges

⚠️ Not to be confused with

No common edible confusion (—)—

To tell them apart: the main risk is historical (folk medicine use as a violent purge, now abandoned); the foul smell when crushed generally deters any accidental ingestion

☠️ What kills

nomCardiac glycosides (hellebrin and related bufadienolides), present throughout the entire plant, especially the rhizome
dose letale estimeea few grams of rhizome or leaves can cause severe poisoning; documented historical use as a lethal purge when dosage was poorly controlled (approximate, no modern human threshold established)
delai30 min à quelques heures
symptomesmouth burning, violent vomiting and diarrhea, dizziness, then severe cardiac arrhythmia similar to digitalis poisoning in serious cases
antidoteno specific antidote; symptomatic treatment and cardiac monitoring
morts documenteesyes, historically documented (ancient use as a poison and purge, notably during the Siege of Kirrha where hellebore was allegedly used to poison the besieged city's water supply according to Greek tradition); modern cases are rare

First steps : Call poison control if ingested, even in tiny amounts, especially if a child handled the plant and put their hands to their mouth. Do not induce vomiting. Keep a piece of the plant for identification.

Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.