Dumb cane, elephant ear, peace lily, philodendron, pothos and caladium lead the list. The National Capital Poison Center names all six as poisonous. Those are the poisonous indoor plants most of us keep at home. The same center runs a second list. It names the plants it calls non-poisonous, and many of the most common pots in a house sit on that one.
"He was chewing on the big leaf," a neighbor told me, pointing at the potted elephant ear plant on her back step. That plant is Colocasia. It led a six-year pediatric hospital cohort reported in Children in 2024, showing up in 18.3% of cases. Dieffenbachia came next at about 9.9%, then castor bean at about 7%. Houseplants outranked wild plants as the source across those 71 patients.
- Caladium
- Dieffenbachia, sold as dumb cane
- Elephant ear
- Peace lily
- Philodendron
- Pothos
- African violet
- Begonia
- Christmas cactus
- Coleus
- Dracaena
- Jade
- Petunia
- Poinsettia
The Utah Poison Control Center sorts a wider group under houseplants. Its list runs calla lily, dumb cane, Easter lily, peace lily, philodendron, poinsettia, pothos, rubber tree and umbrella tree. Dumb cane is Dieffenbachia, the plant that ranked second in that hospital data. Four names sit on both lists: dieffenbachia, pothos, philodendron and the peace lily. Start your walk through the house with those.
Poinsettia is where the two lists split. Utah files it under houseplants to know about, and the other center names it on the non-poisonous side. Neither source settles that, so I keep my own up on a mantel through December and leave the argument alone. Any plant the two lists disagree on gets the same careful spot in my house.
Poisonous indoor plants range from mild irritation to severe illness or death. Neither list scores one against another on that range. For some plants every part is poisonous. For others only certain parts are. A name on the list is a plant to know and move, not a plant to rank.
Who eats it matters too. Some plants are toxic only to pets, some only to people, and a few to livestock as well. If you own a cat that chews leaves, check each pot against a pet source and a human poison center list, because a plant can clear one and land on the other.
Height fixes most of the risk in a room. A pot on the floor sits inside the reach of a crawling baby and a bored cat, while the same pot on a wall hanger does not. Two of these plants beat you on placement, though. Pothos and philodendron both trail, so a pot set high on a cabinet ends up with vines hanging at hand height by the end of a season.
- Raise: Move every pot from the poisonous list onto a shelf, a hanger or a high mantel that small children and pets cannot reach.
- Name: Write the real name of each plant on the side of its pot, since help on the phone depends on knowing the exact plant you own.
- Save: Put 1-800-222-1222 in your phone contacts now, well before you have any reason to dial it.
- Check the trailing pots every few months and coil loose vines back onto the shelf.
Names carry more weight than most people expect. Expert help depends on an accurate plant name, and "the big green one in the hall" will not get you far on a phone call. A plant tag taped to the pot, or one photo of each plant saved in an album, covers you.
This page covers the poisonous indoor plants sitting in your rooms rather than emergency response. For a real exposure, 1-800-222-1222 reaches a poison center, and that call comes first. Walk the house once with both lists open. Write down what you own, and the vague worry turns into a short list of pots to move.
Read the full article: Poisonous Plants: Which Ones Are Truly Deadly
