The three major poisonous plants in Japan are torikabuto, doku zeri, and doku utsugi.
日本の三大有毒植物はトリカブト、ドクゼリ、ドクウツギです。
1. トリカブト, 鳥兜, torikabuto = Aconitum, aconite
The leaves resemble those of nirinsou (Anemone flaccida). Nirinsou is a favorite sansai. The two plants can be found in the same place.
葉はニリンソウ（二輪草）に似ています。ニリンソウは山菜です。両者は同じ場所に生えていることがあります。
Images of torikabuto/トリカブトの画像
Images of nirinsou/ニリンソウの画像
2. ドクゼリ, 毒芹, doku zeri = Cicuta virosa, water hemlock
The leaves resemble those of seri (water dropwort), one of the haru no nana kusa (seven herbs of spring). The two plants can be found in the same place.
歯はセリに似ています。セリは春の七草のひとつです。両者は同じ場所に生えていることがあります。
Images of doku zeri/ドクゼリの画像
Images of seri/セリの画像
3. ドクウツギ, 毒空木, doku utsugi = Coriaria
Images of doku utsugi/ドクウツギの画像
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Here people often die or get harmed because they try to pick wild garlic (Allium ursinum) and pick Colchicum autumnale instead. From my point of view they don't look the same, there are profound differences concerning the leaf/stem.
You should know the differences when dealing with wild plants before trying to collect some. Therefore there are still a few even I would never pick because the differences between the good plant and the bad plant (doppelganger) are really too small. Yes and most of the time they grow in the same habitats.
This post, which is more like a personal memo, has been inspired in part by your book and in part by a news story of a woman in Niigata who died in March after having had doku zeri.
I make it a point to pick up only those plants that I can easily identify, and I don't know why some people pick up plants without being sure what they really are.
You are right, one should only pick up what one knows for sure unless one is trained on plant identification (best on scientific terms). There are key indicators to tell what is what but you need training to look at all aspects. For example water hemlock: One sign are purple stripes or freckles at the stems, oily stinky yellow juice running from cuttings, leaves are coarsely toothed and so on. A few hundred years ago in Germany/Prussia they were planning to make a law to wipe out all hemlock wherever it could be found, because of the huge death toll it took. I think they often mistook hemlock for Angelica which was a medical plant and stems were candied as sweets.
Your post makes me think of mushrooms too... In every European country people regularly die or at least becoe seriously ill and have to go to hospitals because they have picked wrong mushrooms.
My personal trick has always been to avoid picking the very tiny young mushrooms because often they haven't shown yet the distinctive characteristics which help one avoid mistakes. (Of course not to mention leaving every single mushroom I had doubts about...).
Kiki:
<law to wipe out...
That's interesting! In Japan, doku utsugi gari (hunts) were conducted in days of old because the berry is sweet and was a cause of children's death.
Sissi: Yes, the same is true of wild mushrooms. Sadly, Niigata has the most cases of mushroom poisoning in Japan...
In France there is a very practical law: all the pharmacists are trained to know edible mushrooms and they always keep mushroom guidebooks too. They cannot refuse to check your mushrooms if you pick them and have doubts.
The problem is that some people apparently really abuse and bring tons of mushrooms and say: could you check all of these? It's a free service, but people are so disrespectful, they will make a pharmacist work for half an hour and not buy even a toothpaste to thank him and will not propose a part of mushrooms as a thank you gift... Pharmacists in woods areas have a difficult life in the autumn when most mushrooms appear.
All these stories make me think of a horrible joke
-"What does cyanide taste like?"
-"Like bitter almonds, but for a shorter time".
Sissi: What a practical law! But free of charge?! Poor pharmacists!
Thank you for the joke. It made me laugh!
I'm glad you weren't shocked by my black joke ;-)
Hi Hiroyuki. I really enjoyed reading your blog entry and have a question if you don't mind. Why do we call the "Three big poisonous plants of Japan?" Is it because they are the most commonly found poisonous plants? Or because they contain the strongest poison? Or are they the only poisonous plants? I have researched but can't seem to find the answer.
johnspiri: The Japanese like to talk about sandai (three major) xxx. For a list of sandai xxx, go to the Wikipedia page (Japanese only):
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E4%B8%89%E5%A4%A7%E4%B8%80%E8%A6%A7
The criteria as to what to include in the sandai xxx are quite vague, I suppose. The sandai xxx are so selected because they should be paid particular attention, they are worthy of mention, etc., etc.
Thank you Hiroyuki for your explanation. There is so much to learn about sansai!
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