Kevin: See below. There are several references to toxic honeys in the US. The earliest record of which I am aware dates back to Philadelphia in 1790, when a child died from eating honey. There are also references from the Civil War and from the 1940's and 1960's. The most recent report is the one we found here in Virginia. A beekeeper became violently ill after comsuming some honey from his hives and ended up spending 6 days in the local hospital. We were contacted about the possibility of the honey causing the problems and subsequently analyzed the honey. We found two grayanotoxins (primarily nerve toxins that lead to a prolonged depolarization of the nerve) in the honey in sufficient levels to cause very serious medical problems. Based on the time of year, the area in which the honey was made, and the toxins, we believe the source was Kalmia latifolia (Mountain laurel). This type of toxic honey is not common but seems to be reported once about every 20 or 30 years. There are a number of other plants that produce nectars with various toxins. Some of these include Yellow jassamine, tansy ragwort, and Egyptian henbane. If you would like more infromation on plants and specific toxins, please let me know. Hope this answers some of your questions. Rick Fell Rick Fell Professor Department of Entomology Virginia Tech Blacksburg,Virginia 24061 Tel. (540) 231-7207 e-mail: rfell@vt.edu