Watch Out For The Rosary Pea, Here’s Why

Have you seen this plant before?

This plant has become one of the most interesting conversation pieces to all my foraging and local plant minded friends.

This is the rosary pea, or Abrus precatorius, and interesting enough, despite it being deadly, it has been used to make rosaries, with the greatest danger to the rosary maker themselves in the case they get an unintended prick.

The rosary pea seeds contain the poison abrin, which is very similar to ricin as it doesn’t take much to be deadly. The seeds are only dangerous when the coating is broken or scratched, when swallowed whole, there isn’t as much danger.

I wouldn’t play roulette with them though.

Most of us though have feathered friends and kids on our property, and yes, they are deadly to both. If you see this invasive plant, get rid of it! I did some independent research a while back, and though death by ingestion is uncommon, it’s not unreported.

In fact, my daughter told me kids at her school frequently would play with these deadly seeds. Lastly, I learned about this plant from a wild edibles class with the infamous #greendeane, one of the most knowledge experts on wild edible plants in the world (IMO).

If you have such courses or classes in your area, take one! I didn’t want to know what to eat as much as what NOT to eat.

This is one of those plants you DO NOT want to eat. The more you know…

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