Colchicum Emerging
arnold140@verizon.net (Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:39:19 PDT)

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