Tokyo Food Safety Information Center » Good things to know » Poisonous plants easily mistaken for harmless ones » Lycoris radiata (Amaryllidaceae)

Lycoris radiata (Amaryllidaceae)

Naturalized plant originating in China propagates close to human dwellings on banks, graveyards and roadsides all over Japan. Around the autumnal equinox it blooms mainly in red and it is characterised by the fact that it grows leaves and blooms in different periods. It has a scaly bulb in the soil.

Characteristics

Habitat	Banks, graveyards, roadsides, etc.
Parts of the plant that may be ingested accidentally.	Scaly bulb, bud, etc.
Symptoms	Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, paralysis of central nerves and other.
Venomous constituents	Whole plant contains lycorine. There is especially a lot of it in the scaly bulb.

Lycoris radiata

Scaly bulb of the lycoris radiata