Value Village ／ Food & living
This answer is a draft. It stays unpublished until legal review and source verification are complete.
Foraging for spring mountain vegetables (sansai), or picking the nira (garlic chives) and fuki (butterbur) growing in the garden: eating familiar wild plants is part of Japanese food culture. But every year there are poisonings from "mistaking daffodil for nira" or "mistaking autumn crocus for wild garlic", and some are fatal. MHLW statistics record several dozen cases of plant-toxin food poisoning a year. Here are the pairs most often confused, and how to prevent an accident for certain.
| Poisonous plant | Edible plant it is mistaken for | How to tell them apart (but check the actual plant) | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daffodil (suisen) (leaves, bulb) | Nira (garlic chives), nobiru (wild rocambole), onion (bulb) | No nira smell (nira smells strongly). Daffodil leaves are thicker and broader; the bulb is smaller than an onion | Nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and headache within 30 minutes of eating. The most common plant poisoning in Japan |
| Autumn crocus (inu-safuran, Colchicum) (leaves, bulb) | Gyōja-ninniku (Alpine leek), myōga (Japanese ginger), potato and onion (bulb) | Gyōja-ninniku smells of garlic. Autumn crocus has no smell | Vomiting and diarrhoea from colchicine, leading to multiple organ failure. Several deaths |
| False hellebore (baikeisō, kobaikeisō) (young shoots) | Urui (hosta, ōba-gibōshi), gyōja-ninniku | False hellebore has deeply pleated leaves with parallel veins, wrapping the stem | Nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, convulsions |
| Aconite (torikabuto) (young leaves) | Nirinsō (anemone), momijigasa, yomogi (mugwort) | Deeply divided leaves. Extremely similar before flowering. Grows mixed in the same spots | Numbness, arrhythmia and breathing difficulty from aconitine. Highly lethal |
| Angel's trumpet (chōsen-asagao, Datura) (root, seeds, leaves) | Burdock (gobō) root, sesame (seeds), okra (buds), moroheiya (jute mallow) | Thicker and shorter than burdock root; different smell | Hallucinations, agitation, dilated pupils, rapid pulse |
| Potato (sprouts, green skin, immature tubers) | — | See our separate article on storing potatoes | Nausea, stomach pain, diarrhoea |
| Pokeweed (yōshu-yamagobō) (root, berries) | Yamagobō (edible, used for pickles), grapes (berries) | Reddish-purple stems; clusters of blackish-purple berries | Vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions |
| Kuwazu-imo (Alocasia) (tuber) | Taro (satoimo) | Long leaf stalks, no proper tuber | Severe pain and swelling in the mouth |
| Hydrangea (ajisai) (leaves) | Eaten by mistake as a garnish on a dish | — | Vomiting, dizziness |
| Ginkgo nuts (ginnan) (in quantity) | Edible, but children should have no more than 5–6, and adults should avoid 10–20 or more | — | Convulsions (a compound that causes vitamin B6 deficiency) |
[Verify] Check the number of food-poisoning incidents and the ranking of plants against the latest MHLW year, and the Poison Information Center numbers and hours against the Japan Poison Information Center.
Daffodil leaves mixed in with nira is the most common accident of all. Smell every stem as you pick, and do not eat nira growing near daffodils.
Before flowering, aconite and nirinsō, or false hellebore and urui, are so alike that even experts need the actual plant. Photo identification is dangerous.
The toxins in daffodil, autumn crocus and aconite are not broken down by heat. Not eating them is the only countermeasure.
Experienced foragers have accidents every year. Toxic species grow mixed with edible ones, and the young-shoot stage is when they are hardest to tell apart.
Autumn crocus and aconite can be lethal even in small amounts. Nausea or numbness after eating a plant means: take the rest of the plant and see a doctor at once.
---
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/kenkou_iryou/shokuhin/syokuchu/poison/
https://www.maff.go.jp/j/syouan/seisaku/foodpoisoning/naturaltoxin/
https://www.j-poison-ic.jp/
⚠️ Editorial note: the source URLs above were identified by search. Our working environment cannot reach go.jp domains, so the contents have not been checked against the text. Verify every source before publication and record who checked it and when.
What we share here are ideas and everyday practices passed down among people living in Japan, together with general information drawn from public sources. They are not official recommendations, and they are not professional instruction. Practices vary between households and regions.
This is general information. Results vary from person to person and depend on your own conditions and surroundings.
Please decide for yourself, using your own judgement, whether any of this suits your situation. We cannot accept responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from following this article.
Some ingredients need thorough cooking. Eat raw only foods that are sold for raw consumption. If you have allergies, check the ingredients.
Tell us if this has changed
Approved contributions keep the contributor's name, shown in five languages.
Other languages：日本語 ／ 简体中文 ／ 繁體中文 ／ 한국어
Value Village is not a government body. Always confirm procedures on the official site.
Written by Value Village from public sources. Nothing here is reproduced from another site.