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Deadly☠️ To avoid

🌺 Oleander

Nerium oleander · Apocynaceae

🫒 Mediterranean
🧠 To remember it“Leaves by three, keep off the barbecue” — oleander has nothing in common with bay laurel.
Oleander — Nerium oleander

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A Mediterranean shrub very widely planted in hedges and ornamental containers, featuring narrow, leathery evergreen leaves and large, fragrant pink, white, or red flowers. The entire plant is cardiotoxic, including its wood and the smoke from its burning—a known hazard during barbecues where an oleander branch was used as a skewer.

  1. lanceolate, leathery leaves, arranged in whorls of 3, shiny dark green above
  2. large flowers with 5 petals, pink, white, or red, clustered in terminal cymes
  3. slightly sticky milky sap appearing at stem wounds
  4. fruit in a long, tapered pod containing tufted seeds
Size2 to 5 m as a shrub
FloweringMay-September
Habitatbanks of Mediterranean waterways, widely cultivated in hedges, gardens, and containers everywhere else

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Bay laurel (edible) (Laurus nobilis)none for bay laurel, but confusion reported when used as a skewer or culinary herb

To tell them apart: bay laurel has alternate leaves (not in whorls of 3) that smell strongly aromatic when crushed; oleander has no culinary scent and its leaves are grouped in 3s

☠️ What kills

nomCardiac glycosides (oleandrin, neritin)
dose letale estimeea single chewed leaf can be dangerous for a child; a few leaves for an adult (Toxinz, approx, the exact dose varies greatly)
delai30 min to a few hours
symptomesnausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, blurred vision, followed by severe heart rhythm disorders (bradycardia, blocks, arrhythmias) that can lead to cardiac arrest
antidotedigoxin-specific Fab fragments used for foxglove may be partially effective in specialized ICU care; otherwise symptomatic treatment
morts documenteesyes — documented fatal cases, particularly around the Mediterranean Basin, including accidental ingestion of smoke or meat grilled on oleander wood skewers

First steps : Call poison control immediately, even if a child has simply chewed on a leaf. Do not induce vomiting. Never use oleander wood for a campfire or skewers; keep a fragment of the plant involved.

Sources (3)

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.