Stevie Baines, age 8, of Asheville, North Carolina, for his question:

What is dogbane?

There are several wild plants in the dogbane family    and none of them are nice to know. One is called the spreading dogbane because its long, skinny stems twine around tall weeds. When summer comes, it puts on mini bunches of very tiny flowers. Dogbane blossoms may be greenish yellow, creamy colored or pale green.

The word "dogbane" means something that poisons dogs. The people who chose this name thought that dogs and other animals can be poisoned by eating these weeds. But we now know that dogs do not eat wild dogbane. And what's more, when it grows in the fields, cows and other grazing animals do not eat it, either. It happens to have a very nasty bitter taste. This is fine, because when animals or people do eat dogbane by mistake, they become very, very sick. It's never a good idea to sample wild plants because even the experts are not sure which ones will make you throw up.