7 Popular Plants with Poisonous Berries

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Poisonous berries are quite common in gardens. Find out which plants including bushes and vines have toxic berries. Some people are surprised to learn that not all poisonous berries are red! Photos are included for easy identification.

This is an excerpt from the book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. It is a handy guide for finding and identifying the most common wild berries of North America.

Related: How to transplant raspberries and How to grow strawberries.
Poisonous berries are quite common in gardens. Find out which plants including bushes and vines have toxic berries. Some people are surprised to learn that not all poisonous berries are red! Photos are included for easy identification.


I may receive a commission if you purchase something mentioned in a link on this post for sites including Amazon.com. Other links may go to websites where I have been paid to write a blog or article. See the entire disclosure here.

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How to Forage Safely

If you’re into hiking, camping, or gardening, you probably notice berries at various times of year and wonder if they are actually edible (and safe) or poisonous and to be avoided. With so much interest in foraging for food these days, a guide book like this one is really helpful for making safe (and delicious) choices.

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If you grew up as a free-range kid like I did, foraging for fruit was a way to get quick snacks while playing outside all day without having to come home. I have no idea how we knew which berries were safe and which ones to avoid but that’s probably because we fixated on the abundance of wild blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. I thought nothing of climbing through terrible brambles with tangled, thorny vines that would leave huge bloody scratches on my legs and arms (and clothes—sorry, mom!), just to reach the biggest berries, so ripe and gushing with sweetness.

We would devour them by the handful until energy was restored and we could resume our day of play.

Today we know there’s many more wild edible berries than those common few. And, once you can distinguish the poisonous ones from the good ones, there’s lots of new tastes to try. Food foraging is all fun and games until someone gets poisoned. Not worth it unless you are informed.

Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. Finding and indentifying the most common wild berries in North America. Who's edible, who's toxic, and how to tell the difference.Buy it Here

Good Berry Bad Berry lists plants in 3 main categories

1. Bad berries (deadly and toxic)
2. Good berries Bad Idea (not toxic but horrible tasting)
3. Good berries (edible)

The book also has some recipes using aronias, beautyberries, mulberries, and gojis.

The format is very handy: it’s just 6×7″ and easy to include in your pack on a hike.

Here’s a sample page from the book showing the key information for each berry:

Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. Finding and indentifying the most common wild berries in North America. Who's edible, who's toxic, and how to tell the difference.

7 Popular Garden Plants with Poisonous Berries

Many plants have medicinal qualities which can be toxic to humans or pets and many of them grow in our gardens without ever causing a problem. You have to decide for yourself whether they may actually pose a problem for you or your beloveds.

Nature’s built-in warning system is that harmful plants and berries have repulsive tastes. I’m not sure if there’s exceptions to this, but overall, if it takes like poison, it is.

Some plants have poisonous berries that are only harmful when impossibly large amounts are ingested. Others, like Virginia creeper, are much more damaging even in small doses and can be fatal if eaten.

Here’s some common plants with poisonous berries.

1. Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)
The flowers, fruits, and seeds are poisonous to humans, cats, and dogs if ingested.

Oriental Bittersweet berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Oriental Bittersweet [image credit: iStock]

2. Common Honeysuckle (Lonicera poericlymenum)
Berries are poisonous if ingested.

Honeysuckle berries |Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Common Honeysuckle [image credit: iStock]

3. Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana)
Berries, seeds, and root are poisonous if ingested raw.

Pokeweed berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Pokeweed [image credit: Bill Johnson]

4. Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
Berries are poisonous. Would require large quantities to be toxic. No reported cases.

Solomon's Seal berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Solomon’s Seal [image credit: Bill Johnson]

5. Spotted Laurel (Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’)
Berries are poisonous if ingested.

Spotted laurel berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Spotted Laurel [image credit: iStock]

6. Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) 
Berries are poisonous. Highly toxic. May be fatal if eaten.

Virginia creeper berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Virginia Creeper [image credit: Holly Rosborough]

7. Winterberry Holly (Llex verticillata)
Berries are poisonous if ingested.

Winterberry holly berries | Did you know some popular and common garden plants produce poisonous berries. While some are midly toxic, others can be fatal if ingested. Find out which ones you should look out for! These berries are featured in the new book, Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest.

Winterberry Holly [image credit: Helen Yoest]

There’s lots more information in the book, covering 40 common wild berries in North America. The layout of the book makes it really easy to find the information you want. I think I’m well on my way to fulfilling my childhood goal of becoming a berry-ologist!Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. Finding and indentifying the most common wild berries in North America. Who's edible, who's toxic, and how to tell the difference.
Buy it Here

Garden safely and enjoy!

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛

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Comments

  2. Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest would be a book I’d love to read so I can add to my knowledge of plants and flowers that I use daily in my healing arts practice. I live in Daytona Beach, Florida. Thank you!

  3. Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. Would be so helpful right now here in Montana. I’m scampering about the gallatin forest trying to identify different berry types. I identified Starry False Solomon Seal I think 0_O? This book would mean the world to me at this moment. I’m trying to teach my 2 year old to forage and learn what I’ve learned too.Thanks for the opportunity.

  6. I would love to win this book! We live in the Pacific Northwest and all these good berries can’t be eaten cause we can’t tell them apart. Lol

  7. Interesting information, especially for those that live in areas that are heavily wooded. I recognize many of the berries listed above from my time living on the East Coast. Thank God I never got the idea to eat any of the berries.

  8. I would LOVE to win a copy of Good Berry, Bad Berry. I love to forage and it would be very useful to me here in CT as well as when I travel for hikes. You already answered a question in one of the photos you shared from the book!

  10. Good Berry Bad Berry–what a great resource. I live in Coastal/Redwood forest of Central California. We love watching the birds get drunk on the red berries of our neighbor’s tree. Would be fun to identify berries (and taste some, if we knew it was safe) on our family hikes.

  11. Good Berry Bad Berry. Honeysuckle and Pokeweed are both in our yard. What else? -( We are in South central Pennsylvania.

  13. Hi there! I live in Newfoundland and Labrador. Good Berry Bad Berry looks like a great resource for those of us who like to nibble while we’re out on a hike. I really hope spring arrives early this year.

  15. We just moved to the country in Massachusetts and live on alot of property. We have all sorts of things growing on our land. Good Berry Bad Berry would be a huge help with us. We started tapping our maples. It’s a short period of time of hard work to get what all your maples can offer and then can them. But worth it. As for the berries. I would love to see what I can make into jam.

  17. I would love to own a copy of “Good Berry, Bad Berry”!! I have a five year old child and a dog who both play outside often, and we have Virginia Creeper in our yard. Thank goodness I found out about that because the kiddo was always trying to eat those berries when he was younger! It would be helpful to know about what berries we can and can’t eat because we love foraging! Thanks so much for the lovely giveaway! We live in Colorado.

  18. Love berries, I would love to win the book “Good Berry, Bad Berry” to learn about all kinds of berries. I live in Northern Illinois.

  19. Hope to win a copy of ‘Good Berry, Bad Berry’. Would love to find out more, like Beauty Berry, Pyracantha Berry and others like it! I live in TX

  22. Hello, we are moving back to our farm near Grande Prairie, AB, Canada this spring. We love to go walking with our young grandson and soon to be born granddaughter. As you are no doubt aware, everything goes into the mouths of little ones so it would be awesome to have a copy of good berry, bad berry as a reference. Thank you.

  23. Good Berry, Bad Berry would be a great resource in my gardening book library!

    near Richmond, Virginia

  24. GOOD BERRY, BAD BERRY by Helen Yoest would make a grand informative addition to my gardening library, here in Southern California!??

  26. I live along the Texas Gulf Coast, and Good Berry, Bad Berry would be great for the family when we take nature walks! Thanks for all of the great inspirations!

  27. Some people say oh you can eat it. I’d like to know for myself and looking at Good Berry Bad Berry would help.

  28. Looks like an interesting book, Good Berry, Bad Berry. Just like so many of your articles and ideas for my garden. It will come in useful here in Colorado Springs, CO!! Thank you for so many wonderful ideas!!!

  29. As we plan to retire in the woods, off the grid, this book will be very useful. We’re in Nova Scotia, Halifax right now and Cape Breton Island when we retire. I spent a lot of time in Ontario, and really appreciate the Canadian viewpoint Her Majesty brings. Thanks!

  30. Good Berry, Bad Berry sounds interesting and perfect for me on my hikes through out the Adirondacks and Green Mountains of Vermont.

  33. Since I spend a lot of time outside foraging I would love to have a copy of the Good Berry, Bad Berry book. Sounds like a wealth of information is contained within. Thanks for the introduction and the chance to win.

  36. I would love to receive a copy of “Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest”. I live in Southeast Texas and we have so many plants out here with berries on them: it would be nice to know which ones are poisonous, to make share the grandkids do not go near them. Thanks!

  39. I’m in Zone 4 northern Wisconsin and would love a copy of Good Berry: Bad Berry. I have elderberry, blueberry and serviceberry bushes. This year will be planting blackberries supposedly hardy to Zone 4.

  40. I hike throughout the Great Pacific Northwest and forage for juicy berries…. I had better read Good Berry Bad Berry soon, before it’s too late! Yikes!

  41. Would love to win a copy of “Good Berry Bad Berry – Who’s Edible, Who’s Toxic, and How to Tell the Difference” by Helen Yoest. Just bought two acres in North Carolina and would love to have a reference on some of the awesome new flora we now have! Thank you also for your fun, informative site Empress! 🙂

  42. I would love to win a copy of Good Berry Bad Berry by Helen Yoest. I live in Oregon and I am new to foraging . This book would be an invaluable guide.

  45. Good Berry, Bad Berry looks to be easy to follow,easy to read and therefore easy to identify the berries that grow around our farm in Ohio.

  46. Red Deer, Alberta Canada…would be a very helpful booki: GOOD BERRY BAD BERRY. It is always so tempting to just eat berries… I need to be more informed. Thank you.

  47. I’d love a copy of this book. Thanks for the possibility. I live in VT where it’s very cold right now.

  50. “Good Berry Bad Berry” is just the kind of book I love to read! We live in rural Georgia, USA, and often come across things in our nature walks. With our granddaughter coming to live with us soon, we need to be informed about what might potentially harm her. Thanks for sharing your expertise!

  51. Good berry , bad berry sounds very interesting. Always looking for the good berries here in Olympia, WA.

  52. Good Berry Bad Berry sounds like a good book to have. I somehow survived my free range childhood too by only eating berries that I recognized.

  54. Hi, I live in Montana and I am always wondering if those berries you see growing along the hiking trails are good or bad berries. I would love to have a copy of Good Berries Bad Berries to enjoy. Thank you for the opportunity.

  55. Oh that would be a helper out here in Western Colorado when we go out foraging. I love to garden and love your blog, I am teaching my granddaughters about gardening and the joy it brings to one.
    Thanks for the chance to win.

  56. I am a long time gardener and plant lover (botany degree from THE Ohio State University – Go Bucks!). I would truly enjoy reading Good Berry Bad Berry. Thanks for the opportunity. I live in northern Ohio.

  58. I am new t.o gardening and Good Berry Bad Berry would be a welcome addition to my gardening library.

  59. Good Berry Bad Berry sounds like a really interesting book to read. When I was young we use to go walking in the woods and found things to eat and things to put in our mud pies. I live in Oklahoma and you don’the see as much now.

  60. I would love to receive the copy of Good Berry Bad Berry!~ It is always good to be well informed!~
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