PAWS Pet Poison Reference Library

Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants for Pets

PAWS was built to be one of the most detailed plant-safety references for pet owners, veterinarians, rescues, boarding facilities, and animal-care professionals. Browse 359 in-depth plant-safety guides for dogs, cats, horses, livestock, rabbits, birds, reptiles, and other animals. Each guide is built as a practical pet-poison reference, with plant identification, scientific names, toxic compounds, poisoning symptoms, first aid, veterinary treatment, prognosis, prevention, and research citations.

Lord-and-Ladies or Arum maculatum with glossy arrow-shaped green leaves often marked by dark spots, a pale green hood-like spathe surrounding a purple or yellow spadix, and a later upright spike of tightly packed orange-red berries.

Lord-and-Ladies

Arum maculatum L.
Araceae — Arum Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Macadamia nuts showing creamy round kernels beside extremely hard dark-brown shells and green outer husks from a Macadamia integrifolia tree.

Macadamia Nuts

Macadamia integrifolia Maiden & Betche
Proteaceae — Protea Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Madagascar Dragon Tree with slender gray cane-like stems topped by tufts of long narrow arching green leaves edged in dark red, with some cultivars displaying cream, yellow, pink, or burgundy striping.

Madagascar Dragon Tree

Dracaena reflexa var. angustifolia Baker
Asparagaceae — Asparagus Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Madeiran Ivy or Hedera maderensis climbing a tree with aerial rootlets, broad glossy green juvenile leaves with shallow lobes and pale veins, unlobed adult flowering leaves, rounded flower umbels, and clusters of dark ripe berries.

Madeiran Ivy

Hedera maderensis K.Koch ex A.Rutherf.
Araliaceae — Ginseng and Ivy Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Annual Baby’s Breath or Gypsophila elegans with slender branching green stems, narrow gray-green lance-shaped leaves, and loose airy clusters of larger open five-petaled white or pale pink flowers.

Maidens Breath

Gypsophila elegans M.Bieb.
Caryophyllaceae — Carnation or Pink Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Malanga or Taro plant, Colocasia esculenta, growing from an underground corm with large downward-pointing heart-shaped to shield-shaped green leaves on thick upright petioles, the petiole attaching to the underside of each peltate leaf inward from the basal notch.

Malanga

Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott
Araceae — Arum Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Maleberry or Lyonia ligustrina, a multi-stemmed deciduous wetland shrub with oval glossy green leaves, small white urn-shaped flowers in narrow clusters, and persistent round brown woody capsules rather than fleshy edible berries.

Maleberry

Lyonia ligustrina (L.) DC.
Ericaceae — Heath, Blueberry, and Rhododendron Family
View Plant Safety Guide
True Mandrake plant in the genus Mandragora with a ground-level rosette of broad wrinkled dark-green leaves, bell-shaped greenish-white or violet flowers emerging from the center, rounded yellow to orange fruits, and a thick often-branched fleshy taproot.

Mandrake

Mandragora spp.
Solanaceae — Nightshade Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Mauna Loa Peace Lily or Spathiphyllum ‘Mauna Loa’ with a dense clump of broad glossy dark-green lance-shaped leaves and upright white hood-like spathes surrounding cream-colored flower spikes called spadixes.

Manua Loa Peace Lily

Spathiphyllum ‘Mauna Loa’
Araceae — Arum Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Marble Queen Pothos or Epipremnum aureum ‘Marble Queen’ with trailing or climbing vines, aerial roots, and glossy heart-shaped leaves heavily marbled and splashed with creamy white, pale green, and dark green.

Marble Queen

Epipremnum aureum (Linden & André) G.S.Bunting ‘Marble Queen’
Araceae — Arum Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Cannabis sativa marijuana plant with upright branching green stems and distinctive palmately compound leaves divided into narrow sharply serrated leaflets, with resinous flowering clusters on a mature female plant.

Marijuana

Cannabis sativa L.
Cannabaceae — Hemp Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Mayapple or Podophyllum peltatum growing in a woodland colony, with upright stems supporting one or two large umbrella-shaped deeply lobed leaves, a single nodding white flower beneath paired leaves, and an oval green fruit that ripens yellow.

Mayapple

Podophyllum peltatum L.
Berberidaceae — Barberry Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Mayweed or Anthemis cotula, a branching annual weed with finely divided fern-like leaves and small daisy-shaped flower heads composed of white ray florets surrounding raised yellow centers.

Mayweed

Anthemis cotula L.
Asteraceae — Aster, Daisy, or Sunflower Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Medicine Plant, the common medicinal Aloe vera, forming a rosette of thick fleshy gray-green pointed leaves with small teeth along the margins, clear inner gel, yellow latex beneath the rind, and a tall flower stalk bearing tubular yellow flowers.

Medicine Plant

Aloe vera (L.) Burm.f.
Asphodelaceae — Asphodel Family;
View Plant Safety Guide
Mexican Bread Fruit or Monstera deliciosa climbing vine with thick stems, cord-like aerial roots, enormous glossy dark-green leaves divided by deep splits and oval interior holes, and an elongated green scaly fruit surrounding a cream-colored edible-when-fully-ripe pulp.

Mexican Bread Fruit

Monstera deliciosa Liebm.
Araceae — Arum Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Milfoil or Achillea millefolium growing as an upright spreading perennial with aromatic fern-like finely divided leaves and broad flat-topped clusters made up of many tiny white flower heads with pale yellow centers.

Milfoil

Achillea millefolium L.
Asteraceae — Aster, Daisy, or Sunflower Family;
View Plant Safety Guide
Milkweed or Asclepias plant with opposite or whorled leaves, clusters of small five-parted flowers, milky white sap from broken stems or leaves, and elongated seed pods splitting open to release flat brown seeds attached to silky white hairs.

Milkweed

Asclepias spp.
Apocynaceae — Dogbane Family;
View Plant Safety Guide
Ming Aralia or Polyscias fruticosa, a tropical evergreen shrub with upright woody stems and dense feathery foliage composed of finely divided, glossy dark-green, irregularly toothed leaflets.

Ming Aralia

Polyscias fruticosa (L.) Harms
Araliaceae — Ginseng or Ivy Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Mock Azalea or Adenium obesum with a swollen gray-green caudex, thick branching succulent stems, clusters of leathery green leaves near the branch tips, and showy funnel-shaped pink flowers with pale centers.

Mock Azalea

Adenium obesum (Forssk.) Roem. & Schult.
Apocynaceae — Dogbane Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Morning Glory or Ipomoea vine climbing a support with twining stems, heart-shaped green leaves, funnel-shaped blue, purple, pink or white flowers, and rounded seed capsules containing several hard dark seeds.

Morning Glory

Ipomoea spp.
Convolvulaceae — Morning Glory or Bindweed Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Morning-Noon-and-Night or Brunfelsia shrub with glossy oval green leaves, fragrant five-lobed tubular flowers appearing deep purple, pale lavender and white at the same time, and rounded green fruit capsules containing numerous dark seeds.

Morning-Noon-and-Night

Brunfelsia Plum. ex L. spp.
Solanaceae — Nightshade Family;
View Plant Safety Guide
Moroccan Ivy or Hedera maroccana evergreen vine with reddish climbing stems, aerial rootlets, large glossy green juvenile leaves divided into three to five lobes, unlobed adult flowering leaves, rounded umbels of small greenish flowers, and globular black ripe berries.

Moroccan Ivy

Hedera maroccana McAll.
Araliaceae — Ginseng or Ivy Family
View Plant Safety Guide
Mother-In-Law Plant or Kalanchoe delagoensis, an upright succulent with narrow tubular gray-green leaves marked by dark reddish-brown patches, small plantlets clustered at the leaf tips, and a tall terminal cluster of drooping orange-red tubular flowers.

Mother-In-Law Plant / Mother of Millions

Kalanchoe delagoensis Eckl. & Zeyh.
Crassulaceae — Stonecrop Family;
View Plant Safety Guide
Mother-in-Law’s Tongue or Dracaena trifasciata growing as a dense cluster of stiff upright sword-shaped succulent leaves with dark green coloring, pale gray-green horizontal cross-banding, and yellow margins on variegated forms.

Mother-in-Law’s Tongue

Dracaena trifasciata (Prain) Mabb.
Asparagaceae — Asparagus Family;
View Plant Safety Guide