Are Bells of Ireland Poisonous to Cats?

Toxins Play a Role

• Flower shapes, colors and bloom time attract and aid feeding by insects, birds and other animals that help pollinate plants. Toxic compounds are just part of a defense system, including plant structures or plain bad tastes, that protect pollen for pollinators. The toxins each plant produces discourage vegetarian predators -- or your cat as it grazes for a little fiber to add to its diet of processed foods. One toxin, calcium oxalate, can lead to gastric distress and kidney or other organ failure; it protects hundreds of plants in the Araceae, Oxalidaceae and Liliaceae families. Many garden vegetables in the Solaneae family contain poisonous alkaloids in leaves and roots that discourage predators.

Bells of Ireland Facts

• Bells of Ireland, also known as shellflower, are named for the shape of the cup-shape leaves that surround tiny, lightly fragrant white flowers lining each stalk. Planted as annuals in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 through 11, they are known as half-hardy or tender annuals because of their sensitivity to temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Bells of Ireland are named for their shamrock-green color rather than their origin -- the plants’ native range lies in the Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Mature plants reseed prolifically but need light for germination.

Defensive Tactics, Not Toxins

• Your cat typically leaves bells of Ireland off its salad bar, not because of toxins, but because they arm themselves with tiny sharp spikes on each stem. The spikes make them tricky to handle for gloveless gardeners and very unpleasant to swallow for your cat and its critter friends. Spikes protect the plants until hovering midsummer butterflies and bees pollinate the sheltered flowers. Your cat might find certain other members of the mint families -- such as catnip (Nepeta cataria), hardy from USDA zone 3 to 7, and other catmints (Nepeta spp.), hardy from USDA zone 3 or 4 through zone 8 -- much more intoxicating than bells of Ireland.

Just Because

• Bells of Ireland do not appear on toxic lists for cats published by the ASPCA, American Animal Hospital Association or Cat Fancier’s Association. That, however, can’t guarantee that your cat wouldn’t tear up tender tissue in its throat and digestive system attempting to swallow a stem of the fragrant plant. If your cat is an inveterate grazer, you might surround your bells of Ireland with catmints to distract it until the flowers mature and you can cut them to enjoy indoors -- out of reach.