I walked through soft green grass looking for my flower. As I lifted my head, I found myself looking directly into a cloud of pink and blue. I smiled, wondered: “where is My Oleander?”. I was searching for a very special beauty. But the day was already coming to an-end. I was getting very anxious, as there was not much time left for me to find this flower of Oleander. I ran and saw that the sun was already glowing in the evening sky. The combination of orange, bright and dark red was breathtaking; an explosion of color in endless calm. I simply had to find the flower I was searching for.
In the shadow of the last bit of light, in the last second, I finally found my flower. Relieved, I felt my happiness turn into joy. But the flower immediately turned black in my hand. Odd, I thought, before I awoke from my dream. It has been a long time since I experienced this dream, but it still remains alive. The next day I immediately went to our garden and brought this beautiful flower, this time it didn’t turn black in my hand.
Oleander seeds introduce us to the mysteries of Nature. I would like to tell you about the beauty of oleanders, but also about some of their secrets which are perhaps not so well-known. Let us journey into the distant as well as the more recent past, to get a sense of just how long the oleander has been and is with us on this earth.
In our garden we used often pesticides to rid off mice, flies, caterpillars...The beauty of the oleander in our garden is undoubtably a fact, including the toxicity of this plant. Our oleander plants, which kept multiplying (as seeds were sown every year) served at first to hide the chain-link fences. Later, I kept them in pots. All of the sudden no more mice, hardly any more flies, and caterpillars hadn’t been seen for a long time. Did the toxicity of oleanders have something to do with it? Whatever it was, living with Nature had become much more pleasant.
Although poisonous, this plant family is broadly distributed in cultivation as it contains many especially colorful members. These are sometimes even considered the most beautiful in the plant kingdom. The best-known genera are: Plumeria, Allamanda, Mandevilla, and Nerium.
Animals do not eat the oleander, as all parts taste very bitter and if swallowed will trigger the vomiting reflex. Thus they avoid the plant in the future. In humans, ingesting even a few oleander leaves will cause the following symptoms successively: dizziness, nausea, vomiting, cardiac arhythmia, paralysis, and in the worst-case scenario death through heart failure. Swallowing even one leaf or drinking the flower’s nectar can cause death in children. Oleander extracts were used in the past as arrow poisons, and the bark as rodent poison.
When pruning oleanders, wear gloves; don’t eat or smoke. The poisonous milky sap should not enter open wounds. Oleander wood should not be used as firewood; the smoke can cause painful irritation. Do not rub your eyes. Wash hands with soap after the work is finished.
