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Beware of Dieffenbachia – Dumb Cane plant

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This plant is commonly used for interior decoration in many offices and homes. Be cautious about having this plant where kids would roam around as it is moderately poisonous, mainly for the children. Got this information in a mail forward and upon digging more details, got to learn more about this plant. It should be uprooted from gardens and taken out of offices. If you touch this plant by any chance, make sure you don’t touch eyes unless the hands are cleaned thoroughly since it can cause partial or permanent blindness.
More details of this plant is as below:

Scientific Name : Dieffenbachia ssp
Common Name : Dieffenbachia (Dumb Cane)
Family : Araceae, Arum family

Characteristics : This is an ornamental plant that is used commonly as an indoor plant. Perennial tropical plant which can grow up to 2.5m tall. Erect stems, thick and fleshy with big leaves ending in pointed apex. Largely petiolate, marbled with white or yellow. Flowers in spadix surrounded by a sheath like leaf which is small, white-greenish. It rarely flourishes when it is cultivated, only sometimes at the beginning of spring when the plant is well grown up.

Uses: As a toxin to poison the arrows – the juice of the plant has been used by the native Amazonian people to be part of the preparations with which they poisoned the arrows.

Toxicity : Medium. The toxicity of this plant is due to its content in calcium oxalates. There are theories exist on the presence of other components, as proteolytic enzymes that propitiate the histamine production. Their sap is irritating because of the presence of this component that appears in form of crystals that damages the skin tissues by contact when injected. The calcium oxalate is also a cause for spew, irritating and inflammatory properties. When it is together with the calcium, can be the main reasons for the production of kidney stones. Calcium and magnesium oxalates are two of the main components of poisonous plants. Equally its ingestion produces the irritation and inflammation of gastric mucous and it can damage the kidneys, arteries or the stomach of those who eat it.

Symptoms: It can produce dermatitis in the skin, with reddening, itchiness or burning. More serious symptoms can appear such as bladders or ulcers. Its contact with the eyes, it produces irritation and transitory lost of vision. When its juice is ingested, it can produce vomits or diarrhea and even big inflammations of the digestive tract, especially in the mouth, the throat and the lips. A big ingestion of the plant can end up producing breathing difficulty, which is not very habitual. The accidents are usually more common in children who chew the leaves, which produces a quick irritation with inflammation of the mucous membranes and a great salivation. The quick action of the toxins of this plant usually propitiates its spitting what prevents the patient to continue chewing it . Although there have been registered more severe cases, it usually leads to a very painful local inflammations that don’t usually affect to the circulatory system or respiratory tract. Among the other most habitual symptoms include swallowing difficulty, salivation, lost of sensibility with tingling sensation in the tongue, itchiness or ulcerations in the lips. It is a plant whose ingestion is toxic for the domestic animals. There have been registered many cases of intoxication with mortal result in dogs, cats, rabbits and canaries that ate it. The symptoms are similar to those produced on people.

Treatment : Mouth rinsing with plenty of water to eliminate the small pieces of the plant that could still remain in the mouth. Demulcents to alleviate the irritation and soothe the membranes. Immediate medical care with antihistamines and analgesics is required. Being such a habitual plant in our homes it is advised to be wise in its manipulation (it is convenient to use gloves when one has to cut a leaf) and it is very convenient to take it away from the reach of the small children to avoid some possible accident.

Technical information extracted from this source. Published this article in the interest of my blog readers.

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Comments

  1. September 2 it is 30 hours after exposure, and my skin is ok. I guess I should wait a full 48 hours before I declare I did not have a reaction to the sap and broken leaves as I repotted this plant yesterday.

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  2. It is sept. 1, 2023. I just cut down my 40 year old dieffenbachia to re-root it as a smaller plant. It is not the first time I’ve done this. I washed every leaf in water to get off the dust and all, and re-potted it. So my hands and arms are itching now. I washed with soap and water, and put a little hydrocortisone cream on. I fear what I have read here, about rashes worse than poison ivy, blisters that re-appear, intractable itching etc. I can only pray that I don’t get severe skin irritation. I am sorry I didn’t know about skin irritation before I got started an hour ago. Never happened before…

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    • I put coarse salt and hot water cupped in my hands and it gave me great relief 😮‍💨 only remedy that helped!

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  4. I found this info. Looking for a solution to this excessive itchong I have from the sap of the plant getting on my hand. It’s been itching for four days straight. Washing a few minutes later didn’t take the itching away. The rash is spreading across my hand. Help me! I can’t stop the itching. I’ve used lotions aloe vera and it’d just getting worst.

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    • I’m a florist and cleaned the plants had a cut that it went into…happened January 1 2018. Still to this day.. I get them almost healed. The dang horrendous itching begins and here we go again.

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    • Ive had a bubbling rash for over 4 months now from this plant..it comes and goes. It disappeared for 3 weeks and then came back with a vengeance. Theres definitely spines or crystals stuck in me but i cant find any info on how to eradicate it. Any info would be appreciated im a horticulturist and everyone i work with has similar issues with it. Its like a bubbling boil that itches like crazy!

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  5. Well, picked the dead leaves off the Dieffenbachia. No problem … until the next morning woke up with the right side of my face and front of neck on fire! Face and neck were red, swollen, blistered and my eyes swollen nearly shut. Frantically washed with Listerine (removes oil), soap & cold water, applied steroid ointment and vitamin E. Still very, very painful, so went to pharmacy who recommended a 0.5 lidocaine cream — relief at last! It’s been 12 days. Still burns sometimes and is pink. The swelling has gone down a lot and the blisters are gone. I’m afraid to go near the dieffenbachia, too kind hearted to kill it and can’t think of anyone I dislike enough to give it to.

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  6. True true true !
    I don’t know if I can post a picture in your blog but I just got out of the Er thanks to this plant .
    Dangerous,deadly and poisonous.
    I can’t believe the big corporations still making profit of this plant . I bought at Lowes and nobody care about what happened on my hands . Now I have a remisión to a plastic surgeon 😢.. I have a burned hand

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  7. People sue companies for much less . This damm plant should not be sold to the public . You can sugar coat this any way you want but this plant is an enemy to humans , animals and kids . Everyone needs to post the dangers on social media to warn others . Slave owners would make their slaves eat this as punishment and Indians would dip their arrows in the sap to kill their victims . I see nothing beautiful about a plant that can cause havoc . It bbegibs with the word “die” for a reason . Dieffenbenchia sucks .

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  8. When I tried to trim off the dead leaves I felt a burning and itchy sensation and my hands were redden. Lesson learned, I never buy this indoor plant.

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  9. I was pulling out this plant from its pot, about 4 feet tall. I trimmed off the leaves and then grabbed it by the trunk to pull it out of the pot. I got the sap over my hands and immediately felt a burning sensation. I quickly washed with soap and water. Soon after my hands started to become red and itch like crazy. Tried aloe vera gel, hydrocortisone cream, nothing works. Lesson learnt.

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  10. I have had one of these in my office for some time, and I knew it was poisonous but I have never had any issues with it even on the occasions I snapped a few leaves off and had the sap on my hands. Well that changed last week when I decided to re-pot and separate my overgrown plant that was huge. It had 3 plants in the one pot and it was so large it would topple. Never having an issue before I proceeded without caution. Soon after I noticed my forearm itched a little but I washed my hands and thought nothing of it. By the next day a huge rash appeared on my forearm, upper arm, and neck. It itches so bad!!! Because the plant was tall I leaned it on my arm/shoulder while I filled the pot with potting soil…big mistake. It’s been 3 days and the rash hasn’t gone away…and it itches more than poison ivy, chicken pox and athletes foot all put together! I have tried hydrocortisone cream, and calamine lotion with no effect. Lesson learned…handle with care and gloves.

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  11. I got this plant as a gift. I re-potted the plant, it slid off my hand and the sap came out all over my arms and hand from the broken leaf, it squirted out like a cut blood vessel. My arm was swollen and it stung like crazy. For me it was almost comparable to a jellyfish sting. The swelling went down after an hour but the stinging sensation lasted 3 days. This plant is going out the door, don’t want my pets to get into it. The person who gave it to me said it was pet friendly, now I double check all my plants before I put them in the house.

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  12. This helped me find out why my left hand is burning. Well, poison control says I”ll survive…watch out people, it HURTS

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  13. I had heard this plant was poisonous but didn’t believe it too much. Until today! I began breaking off some rather large sections down near the soil. In no time at all my hand was burning and stinging. I washed immediately and stopped breaking the branches. My hand is still burning and stinging an hour later. I hope it doesn’t take me off to the hospital or worse!

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  14. Thanks for the additional info. I decided to purchase some plants that had been neglected at a bargain price. Brought them home and began the reclaiming process. About 10 minutes into it my hands begain to itch and break out with rather large welts. I immediately washed my hands under running water and also used some poison oak preparation that I have with the belief that it couldn’t hurt anything.
    Yesterday , a week later, my hands began to do the same thing again, the pustules had never completely healed and I inadvertently ruptured some . Today ,being a Sunday I can’t get medical tx so I’m trying some home remedies….that’s what led me to your blog.
    To any nae sayers about the toxicity of this plant, if you could see my hands you would be astounded at what this plant can do. As a nurse I have adequate knowledge on proper tx of the average contact skin dermamtitis, so far none are working. I have tried topical creams , soaks, steroids, and oral antihistamine. I’m now taking Valium until I can get an appt with my GP just to ease the discomfort and mentally bear it.
    Just FYI, I have never had ANY type of skin reaction or outbreak…I am very comfortable in the outdoors around all plants. Well now I know differently and sadly I will have to throw out the diffenbachia that I had managed to bring back to optimal health.
    I say to the disbelievers, be cautious when handling this plant, wear gloves with another pair over the first. I have small dogs that I’m crazy about and it would sadden me to no end if I had to watch one of them suffer .

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  16. hi i just want to say i just took some dead leaves of my Dieffenbachia plant which i received terrible burning sensation on my hands also red blotches and some pins and needles sensation.Therefor it shall have to be binned unfortunately they don’t provide this information when you are buying these plants!!!

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  17. This article states this plant grow to 2.5 feet. Mine is only two years old and already 6 ft. And I read of them reaching the ceiling and needed the tops cut off so 2.5 is not correct at all.

    Many decades ago, plantation owners made their slaves chew on the leaves as punishment. Simply touching the plant does nothing but just wash your hands if you cut into the plant and get the sap on your hands.

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  18. I agree that much panic is written on the poisonous nature of this plant. It would most likely taken eating a leaf to develop any problem at all.

    Regarding the plant in the photo, it appears to have gotten too much sun and the leaves aren’t the pretty, glossy leaves it should be. Mine is far greener than the one pictured but never is allowed to get sun on it.

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  19. Hi Sir
    Would you pls help me get an address of any enterprise or a nursery where I can buy chrysanthemums sapplings better known as Guldoudi
    Thanks a lot anytime you plan to visit Sri Harimandir Sahib better known as Golden Temple

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  20. I think there was a bit of exaggeration in the mail that you received. The sap of the plant is toxic, true, but unless you have kids/ pets who are in the teething stage and are likely to try chewing on the stem (!), I don’t think you need to worry about this plant. Sure, it is called Dumb Cane because of the irritating qualities of the sap when it comes in contact with the mouth. But I don’t think the ordinary person is going to go around trying to eat this plant.
    Frankly I’m not very fond of this plant because I think it looks too plasticky and artificial but it is an excellent option for offices and low-maintenance indoor gardens. It’s almost impossible to kill it!
    So don’t let that mail put you off and there is absolutely no need to go around ripping it out of gardens. Doing so may be a bit of the ‘throwing the baby out with the bath-water’ syndrome 🙂

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    • i am 78 old, i yesterday cut the long plant into pieces and here I am with itching like hell. It should be forbiden to have it , period unless it is unreacheable, to anyone. As per offices, it should be people aware of the plant poisonning.

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  24. Eeeeks, anyhow this plant doesn’t look too attractive.. When I buy plants, I buy only based on aesthetic appeal 😉 thanks so much for the info. I’ll watch out for these.
    LoL@ Shruti’s comment.. 10 Indeed! This is called timing..good post Mohan.

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    • Look at the number of people repeating that, I am sure we are ignorant of the kind of plants we are growing around us… We should be more careful and choosy going forward 🙂 Let me try to come up with another post having info on all such plants.

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    • Wow.. that article has lot more information! thanks for sharing… it just adds up to the ‘poisonous plant’ story 🙂

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  29. OMG! Never knew abt this! Thanks so much for sharing Mohan … they r present in the apartment garden too!

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  30. We have like 5 of these plant in my building entrance..
    thanks for the info will definitely talk to my building seccy about it..

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  32. Very informative! I had so many of these, used to water them, touch them…don’t think much has happened to me yet 😛 Sheer luck I suppose.

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