Little Flowers

[Tom]

There are a bunch of flowers and plants that came with the house, but I don't know what they are. This is one of those. They are little "wild flowers". They seem like they'd be very tender and nice to eat. Any one know what they are and if they are edible?

 

[Yvonne G]

This is alyssum. I have no idea if its edible.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Yvonne. Once I got a name, I looked it up on a couple of sites and its pretty toxic stuff. Not edible. That's okay. I'll just rip it up and replace it with gazania and tortoise bush.

 

[egyptiandan]

It seem it is edible Tom. http://www.thetortoisetable.org.uk/site/plants_19.asp?mode=main&catID=320

Danny

 

[Tom]

Well that's interesting. Here's what one of my sites had to say:
http://www.busybirds.net/Toxic.html#top

Can't figure out how to do the link and show all the info. It shows assylum in alphabetical order and then you have to click on the highlighted numbers to the right to see how toxic it is and in what way.

 

[stells]

Listed here as ok too http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Mistypardaliscare.htm

On none of the sites i have seen it on has it been listed as toxic...

 

[franeich]

When in doubt pull it out.

 

[Tom]

Well, since I'm so ignorant about plants, I don't think its worth the risk. I've been keeping them all this time without feeding this to them, so just to be safe, I won't be adding this to the menu. I'd certainly be curious to hear if someone has been feeding this to their tort for any length of time.

I'm always looking for new things to supplement them with. In another couple of weeks they are going to get all the pumpkin leaves and flowers they can eat. I'll have acres worth. Anybody want some?

 

[terryo]

Some neighbor much have that in their yard near me, and the seeds fly all over my yard. I see it in Pio's enclosure, and he never bothered with it. It's also in the boxie garden. It's very invasive, but looks pretty scattered about the yard.

 

[PeanutbuttER]

It is really invasive. Growing up my mom planted it one year and by the next year it had spread to all the flower boxes and every nearby patch of dirt. To this day it still grows up in this HUGE "bush"es of flowers.

She's tried, but can't get rid of it any more.

 

[pugsandkids]

Geez, I can't get alyssum to grow for anything! I actually seeded into Oscars yard because it was on the edible list for desert torts. I think some ants carried all the seeds away though. Nothing grew...

 

[Kristina]

I always had alyssum in my tortoise enclosures... I have always been under the impression that it is fine.

 

[Greg Knoell]

I saw alyssum on many safe lists and I've fed it to my uromastyx, tortoises, and beardeds and know others that use alyssum as a dietary item, although not more than a few times a season. I've never noticed any ill effects and they seem to enjoy it at times. It's been a while since I've used it though.