A NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1931, Page 2

A NATURALIST’S NOTEBOOK

THE POISONOUS TUTU. (By A. T. PYCROFT, in Auckland “Star.”) Mr A. J. Whiteside, of lvaraKa Street, Thames, writes as follows:

“in your column I. have not noticed you make any remarks on the effects on birds caused by them eating tutu or tupakihi berries. I have noticed for many seasons that when the birds eat the ripening tutu berries they tiecome intoxicated. I have noticed flack birds, qua it, tuis and oilier smali birds so affected. This season the cold weather brought the first of the tutu berries in at Christmas. Ihe juice of tile partly ripe berries had an amazing effect on the tuis. Ihe first tui I saw affected by the berries was flying in an erratic manner and lost its balance as it was alighting on a tutli busli. I Watched its unties for a 'few minutes while it appeared to he ill a dizzy stilte, The bird kept opening its tail like a iafl aiid iattff commenced to again feed oil llie partly ripb berries. 1 lltlve seen blackbirds toil intoxicated to fly through tile sable tiasfii” Mr Whiteside refetn to a shrub the young shoots of which, eaten by cattle and sheep often caused severe losses to ' our early colonists. I his shrub belongs to the order coriariene; winch Cheeseman describes as a small order of a very doubtful relationship. Members of this family are not closely related to any other group. The under comprises the single genus coiiaii.i, of wlrcli there are eight or ten species three being found in Now Zealand, others In South America, da pan. China, the Himalayas, North Africa and South Europe. There is much diversity among the New Zealand forms and they hybridise H'roely. I.aing and Blackwell state that it is therefore not safe t oassume, in spite no doubt ol close resemblances, that our species are the same as those in South America . The remarkable distribution of this family has been used to prove a Ranter land connection between Now Zealand and South'America, but the family is probably a very ancient one, and the discontinuity of distribution is more likely to he due to the remains of a plant peculiar to certain countries than to direct communication between those two remote countries. i’he family may at one time have been widely distributed over the Face ol the globe and has died cult ill all places except those iii which it is how i'ouiuL

EFFECTS OF POISON

Chcownnnii remarks: "Most parts of the plant are poisonous, and particarly the young shoots and seeds.” The poisinoiis principle appears to be a glucoside, to which the name tutin has been applied. The juice expressed from the fleshy petals is quite innotuou and is used as a non-intoxicating drink by the Maoris. The effect of tne juice of the berries upon birds lias not to my knowledge been previously remarked upon. It has long been known however, that these berries are greedily eaten by birds, which pass the poisonous seeds whole and do not apparently suffer any ill effect. It is due to the joint research work ot Professor Easterfield, now director of the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, and Mr B. C. Aston, chief chemist, Dominion Laboratory, Wellington, that we owe knowledge of the poison from the tutu, which is the most widely spread and best known of our native poisonous plants. The authors state that the animals brought by Captain Cook both of the sheep and one of the goats appear to have died from the effects of tutu poisoning. Of th c cows brought by the early Canterbury settlers, two were poisoned by tutu within a few days off landing. A visitor to New Zealand in 1861-G2 wrote: ‘‘l was everywhere struck by the abundant evidences of the devastation produced amongst flocks and herds from their feeding on the toot plant. In other words, he seemed a fortunate farmer or runholder, who had not lost more than 25 per cent of hi sstock from toot poisoning whilst in same instances thc losses were so high as 75 per cent.”

KILLED AN ELEPHANT,

Other animals are also affected by the plant. An interesting account of the poisoning, with death in seven hours, of elephant belonging to a travelling menagerie, is given by the late Julius Von Haast. The skeleton is now in the Dominion Museum Wellington. Von Haast says: ‘‘The elephant was landed in Otago and was marched inland by its owner for a considerable distance. Arriving at a suitable halting place, where the vegetation was abundant, the owner determined to give the animal a spellfor a few days’ feeding. The grass which had been burnt off during the previous season, had shut up again with renewed vigour, and amenysi it was a very fine crop of succulent young plants of coriaria. The elephant fed amongst this herbage for four hours, and afterwards went to a neighbouring creek and had a long drink. In turning hack the animal began to roll, fell on the ground, and died after three hours. It is remarkable that the elephant should, like sheep and cattle, eat the plant, while the horse will not touch it.”

Easterfield mid Aston state that j birds are said to be unaffected by the seeds but eases have come under the . notice df the authors in which domes- j tic fowls have been poisoned by eating the berries, the symptoms being typical of tutu poisoning. The number of recorded cases in which human beings hae died from tutu poisoning does not appear to be large. Treatment of persons poisoned nns been by bleeding from the arteries and veins, emetics, stimulants, lime water, ammonia, compulsory exercise. .•nhalation of chloroform, followed by sedatives. The experience of stock owners points to bleeding as the most certain and rapid method of affording relief. CHEMISTRY OF TUTU. It is somewhat remarkable, state Easterneld and Aston, that the poisonous constituent of tutu has remained hitherto unisolated. r J he late Mr \V. Skey has shown that ether removes ifrom the seeds a highly poisonous green oil, which, lie remarks, is, or contains, the poison. The results of the examination of tutu by Easterlies and Aston may be summarised ns follows: No alkaloids can be detected in the plant. All the New Zealand species of corinria contain a highly poisonous crystalline glucoside to which the authors give the name tutin It differs in many respects from any known chemical compound. Tutin is present in both the seeds and leaves of the plants. No other prisonous constituent has been detected. Ihe oil extracted from the seeds is a drying oil, and is not poisonous. It has boon found that a dose of nhout a milligram of the extract produces nausea, vomiting, and incapacity for work extending over 24 hours in a healthy, full-grown man.