--- title: Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A plant cannot run away from a hungry animal, so many plants defend themselves with stings, spines, burning --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging… # Plants deeper: poisonous and stinging plants and staying safe Lesson 255 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/0/) — A plant cannot run away from a hungry animal, so many plants defend themselves with stings, spines, burning juices and poisons. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/1/) — Brush your leg against a nettle and you feel it at once: its hairs are tiny glass-like needles that snap off and push an itchy, burning mix into your skin. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/2/) — Some poisons are much more serious, which is why the golden rule is simple: never eat berries, leaves or mushrooms you find unless an adult who really knows says they are safe. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/4/) — The poisoned apple in Snow White is a fairy tale; a real apple is safe, and the few pips you swallow by accident pass straight through. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/5/) — Nettle hairs are tiny glass-like needles that break off and inject an irritating mix into the skin, which protects the leaves from grazing animals; the sting hurts and itches but wears off by itself. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/6/) — Cooked nettles lose their sting and are safe to eat in soup; rubbing with a dock leaf may soothe a sting, partly just because rubbing helps. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/7/) — Many berries are poisonous to people even though birds can eat them, because birds' bodies handle some poisons differently. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/8/) — Deadly nightshade has tempting shiny black berries and a poison that affects the nerves and heart; its other name, belladonna, means «beautiful lady», because women once put drops in their eyes to make the pupils big. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/10/) — Poison ivy oil can stay on clothes and dogs' fur and give a rash later, and smoke from burning it is dangerous for the lungs. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/11/) — Giant hogweed can grow taller than a grown-up, and its sap makes skin burn and blister in sunlight, so it must never be touched. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/12/) — Foxgloves are poisonous, but the medicine digitalis made from them has helped heart patients since the doctor William Withering wrote about it in 1785. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/13/) — Castor beans hold one of the strongest plant poisons, but castor oil is safe after processing and is used in medicine, soap and machine oil. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/14/) — Rhubarb stalks are safe to eat cooked, but rhubarb leaves are poisonous because they contain a lot of oxalic acid. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/15/) — Chillies contain capsaicin, which tricks pain sensors into feeling heat; mammals avoid chillies, but birds cannot feel the burn and spread the seeds. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/16/) — Milk calms a chilli burn better than water does. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/17/) — Cactus spines are leaves turned into spikes that guard the water inside and give a little shade. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/255-plants-deeper-poisonous-and-stinging-plants-and-staying-safe/18/) — Apple seeds contain a substance that can make a poison only if very many are crushed and eaten; a few swallowed whole pass through harmlessly. - ← previous: [Plants deeper: carnivorous plants that count, slip and suck](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/254-plants-deeper-carnivorous-plants-that-count-slip-and-suck/) - next →: [The microscopic world: cells, the building blocks of life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)