Colchicum Emerging
santoury@aol.com (Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:45:14 PDT)

And of course, some incorporate the toxins into their own bodies, thusly becoming toxic themselves - without being affected. You're right - fascinating stuff.

-----Original Message-----
From: arnold140@verizon.net
To: pbs@lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Sun, Sep 5, 2010 10:39 am
Subject: Re: [pbs] Colchicum Emerging

I'm fascinated by the fact that some creatures can eat plant material which is
extremely toxic to others.

Slugs feast on Colchicums without any apparent harm. Keep onions away from
horses and dogs shouldn't get near any chocolate containing food.

I know from reading that it's all about the ability of the creatures metabolism
to convert the toxin to a harmless metabolite.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…

Of course the usual caveat with Wikipedia

Arnold
New Jersey