Sycamore-deadly poison alert

[Tobi]

Sycamore seeds have been found to be deadly poison for horses:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...lness.html

Eating them causes Equine Atypical Myopathy which results in death, usually from heart attack.

In my opinion, the best thing to do, if there is a Sycamore tree near/on a paddock area is to have it cut down, the ground thoroughly cleared, and in the meantime, horses kept away from any area where the seeds might fall.

Sycamore; pictures of leaf and seeds:
http://www.ycy63.dial.pipex.com/trees/sycamore.html

[Catherine]

What a horrible scary situation for horse owners. Is the Sycamore only poisonous to horses?

It is in the same family as the maples, but I don't believe maples are poisonous. Since they were introduced and naturalized they must be everywhere. How could you ever hope to spot the seedlings in a field.

I just hope that informing people of the danger gives them a chance to do something.

[Tobi]

Yes, I know, it is scary. I have only just found out about this. I don't know if the seeds are only poisonous to horses, or to other animals as well.

The best thing to do, may be to identify if a Sycamore is growing in a paddock field, or on the edges of one. Then fence off a large area around the tree, taking into account any wind which might have blown the seeds. Or even move the horses to another field.

I think there is a leaf collector which works very much like a vacuum cleaner...(?) I know there are plenty that blow leaves, but I think there is one that sucks up as well. That would work to clear the ground of possible seeds.

Some places do tool hire, so it might be possible to hire one for a couple of days....

[Catherine]

I guess this is one of the dangers of planting non native trees. There can be unforeseeable consequences. I am sure no one thought about the trees spreading. Certainly it wasn't understood how dangerous they could be or who would have risked planting them.

Are they a particular problem this year because of the weather? It seems like more seeds fell than usual.

Since some horses have survived there must be a first aid treatment. It would make sense to have that treatment on hand just in case.
I hope the knowing of the danger helps.

[Tobi]

I don't know if the problem has escalated this year particularly...or whether the danger to horses has only recently been discovered. Maybe in the past horses got sick, and no-one knew why, and now it's understood...

Sycamore are not as common in UK as Ash or Oak or Hazel, etc, but they are still around all over the place. I have seen quite a few of them, here and there. I don't know how common they are in US or Canada, but it's wise to keep a watch on what sort of trees grow in/around a paddock area.

[Catherine]

There are a number of trees called a sycamore.

The tree that is causing the problem is a European species called Acer Pseudoplatanus. It is also called Sycamore Maple and it is in the maple family. That makes sense. The winged seeds are very much a maple family trademark.

The North American Sycamore is called Platanus Occidentalis and it is a different family of trees. I am guessing that this is not a poisonous species.

There are studies being done that link the sycamore to the horse illness.
http://www.beva.org.uk/news-and-events/news/view/438

It seems you have got it right when you suggest that the illness was not linked to the tree before. Some years there must be more seeds than other years. How would you ever hope to remove the seeds from a horse pasture. Better to be careful of the trees themselves. After all they were introduced and so do not belong in England. I understand that Australia and New Zealand have problems with the tree spreading as a "weed " tree.

I hope warning horse owners will at least help protect their horses.

[LPC]

We used to play "helicopters" with the winged seeds as children at school. I never knew about this problem until Tobi started this thread.

I would think her suggestion of using a powerful "leaf sucker" vacuum cleaner is the best idea - with a portable battery and current inverter to convert to AC so that it could be used far from power sources.

[Catherine]

I did not know that the Red maple is poisonous. I wonder how many members of the maple family are poisonous? A Leaf Vac or something like it might clear up the seeds and make the pastures safe. I wonder if a horse has to eat a lot of seeds to be poisoned?

Helicopters! I had forgotten about playing with the maple keys and flying them like helicopters.
The squirrels here eat most of the seeds from all the kinds of maples.
I wonder if there is a problem when the seeds are plentiful and the squirrels are not. It is a link that bears looking at.