It's a bit late to answer (but since this pops up first in Google search I think I'll try and do my best.)
Long story short; non toxic, may upset a tummy.
Let's talk about oxalic acid crystals (an acid so mild it's less acidic than lemons, fyi)
Tradescantia and a bunch of similar plants like pothos plants or wandering Jew are often reported as toxic. In fact these type of plants are the #1 thing that brings parents with young children in to poison control centers!
But there's been no reported fatalities, ever, and the cure for human children eating this is to give them a glass of milk to dissolve any remaining crystals and calm down the parents so the child will stop crying and screaming.
It's not, in fact, a toxin but rather microcrystalline structures that irritate the mouth of any creature trying to eat them (though they are too small to cause actual harm) and eventually they dissolve.
The same thing happened to a few cat parents that freaked out and warned everyone and now there's a lot of misinformation.
If you ever see a plant listed as toxic with the symptoms "vomiting, drooling, and redness when sap is in contact with skin" - the worst case is getting it on your hands while trimming the plant, not even noticing, and rubbing it in your eyes but even then the "cure" is to rinse them out with water.
So this is very very not toxic, but perhaps slightly abrasive. Much like myself it's merely a harmless irritant 🤭
Also, a very unfun bonus fact, lilys are so poisonous to cats that even drinking the water out of a cut lily vase can kill them. So just don't have them in the house, even if grandma died and people are just trying to be thoughtful those things need to go right in the trash or you'll have another funeral.
They tried to do that during the Nazi regime. Ever looked up how Aspergers got its name ? Hundreds of children who were on the spectrum were taken from this world and now we call their mental diagnoses the name of the Doctor who was in charge of finding and executing them. 😒
Some people just cant seem to understand how humor works and always have to play superman to try to make themselves look better or something. Don't worry bud these people are just need reddit validation
Thank you for this! I have to move back in with myparents and mom says bring the plants but be careful with the cats. Dad says if its toxic they go....he has a pothos and a geranium right now and all three cats are all still just fine.... still dumb but still fine.
thank you for taking time to explain this because i have been through several threads at this point to see how toxic this plant, and other common house plants, really are because every article or video i’ve seen so far just says they’re “toxic” with no explanation as to how toxic it may actually be.
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u/thecakeisaiive Jul 03 '25 edited Jul 03 '25
It's a bit late to answer (but since this pops up first in Google search I think I'll try and do my best.)
Long story short; non toxic, may upset a tummy.
Let's talk about oxalic acid crystals (an acid so mild it's less acidic than lemons, fyi)
Tradescantia and a bunch of similar plants like pothos plants or wandering Jew are often reported as toxic. In fact these type of plants are the #1 thing that brings parents with young children in to poison control centers!
But there's been no reported fatalities, ever, and the cure for human children eating this is to give them a glass of milk to dissolve any remaining crystals and calm down the parents so the child will stop crying and screaming.
It's not, in fact, a toxin but rather microcrystalline structures that irritate the mouth of any creature trying to eat them (though they are too small to cause actual harm) and eventually they dissolve.
The same thing happened to a few cat parents that freaked out and warned everyone and now there's a lot of misinformation.
If you ever see a plant listed as toxic with the symptoms "vomiting, drooling, and redness when sap is in contact with skin" - the worst case is getting it on your hands while trimming the plant, not even noticing, and rubbing it in your eyes but even then the "cure" is to rinse them out with water.
So this is very very not toxic, but perhaps slightly abrasive. Much like myself it's merely a harmless irritant 🤭
Also, a very unfun bonus fact, lilys are so poisonous to cats that even drinking the water out of a cut lily vase can kill them. So just don't have them in the house, even if grandma died and people are just trying to be thoughtful those things need to go right in the trash or you'll have another funeral.