Officials at Bushy Park have launched an investigation after a young boy handled a poisonous flower earlier this month, which should not have grown there.   

Miriam Peart shared a warning with other park-goers on social media about her child’s close shave with “Monkshood”, a purple flower which is known to be deadly.

Her son first picked up the plant at the entrance to the Woodland Garden, in the south-east corner of the Park, before continuing their outing and stopping for a snack.

But when he picked up the flower again on exiting the park, the family were “casually” informed that it was poisonous by a park gardener. 

The Bushy Park employee identified the flower as Monkshood and suggested they wash their hands due to its toxicity.

After calling 111, Ms Peart was advised by someone from the National Poison Control Centre that if the plant is ingested the consequences can be fatal. The mother said:

“Tonight I hugged my babies even tighter putting them to bed, I am just so thankful that we wiped and sanitized our hands before we ate our snack and we didn’t touch our faces prior to this, but I wanted to just remind you all that even the prettiest of flowers hand-grown within a specific part of a Royal Park can’t be trusted so just be mindful.”

Usually, Monkshood is not grown within reach of children or pets and is handled with gloves.

Richmond and Twickenham Times:

A spokesperson for The Royal Parks said an investigation is underway:

“We were extremely concerned to hear that a child handled a poisonous plant called Monkshood that was found growing in Bushy Park’s Woodland Gardens and we are glad to hear he is well. We strive to provide the highest safety standards in the parks and are taking this incident extremely seriously.

“We have removed this plant from the Gardens and have launched a full investigation to identify why it was growing there.”

“We have no past reports of anyone being harmed though contact with a poisonous plant on our estate, and we will take every measure to ensure this does not happen in the future.”