Foraging in Mbabane

Know these first

What can hurt you around Mbabane in October

3 species on our hazard list have been recorded near here this month, 1 of which can kill a healthy adult. Learn these before you learn anything you intend to eat.

• Can kill9 records nearby

  Ragworts and groundsels (Senecio)

  Senecio (the whole genus)

  Mistaken for

  Wild greens and herbal teas — and, in the past, home-grown wheat: Senecio in the flour poisoned whole families in South Africa's George district in 1918.

  How to tell

  Daisy-family plants with yellow flower heads (with or without petals), each head wrapped in a single row of narrow green bracts, often black-tipped, and seeds carrying white fluffy parachutes. A yellow daisy you can't name does not go in the pot.

  What it does

  Pyrrolizidine alkaloids, which baking does not destroy. They block the small veins of the liver (veno-occlusive disease): pain, a swollen liver and fluid in the belly, and in many cases cirrhosis. Children are the most vulnerable.

• Hospital8 records nearby

  Lantana (tickberry)

  Lantana camara

  Mistaken for

  Blackberry-like clusters of small dark berries that children pick; it smothers forest edges, roadsides and farmland across East and southern Africa.

  How to tell

  A scrambling shrub with square, prickly stems, rough leaves that smell sharp when crushed, flat clusters of tiny flowers that change colour as they age (yellow to orange, pink or red), and tight bunches of small berries ripening green to glossy purple-black.

  What it does

  The green, unripe berries are the dangerous ones: vomiting, diarrhoea and difficulty breathing have been reported in people. Livestock that eat the leaves suffer liver damage and severe sunburn.

• Unpleasant

  7 records nearby

  Buttercups

  Ranunculus (the whole genus)

  Mistaken for

  Young greens gathered in damp meadows, and marsh marigold.

  How to tell

  Glossy five-petalled yellow flowers; the leaves are acrid and burn the tongue when tasted raw.

  What it does

  Blisters the mouth and skin. Cooking destroys it, which is why marsh marigold is always boiled.

These are recorded within about 40 km of here in this month, from verified public observations. It is not a complete list of what is dangerous — nothing is — and a species missing from it may still be in your woods. Never eat anything identified from a photograph and a description alone.