Pretty but toxic: Vancouver Island residents warn of invasive plant spreading through town

Residents in Comox, B.C., are warning others in their area about a toxic, invasive plant that has been spotted in other parts of the province and is now spreading from a local golf course. 

Pat Grappolini was gardening at the back of her condo building, which borders the Comox Golf Club on Vancouver Island, when she noticed a pretty evergreen shrub. 

"I thought, how lovely, we should have more of these growing," Grappolini said over the phone from Calgary, where she lives most of the year. "Then I found out what it was — that it was just terribly toxic." 

Grappolini did some research and discovered the small evergreen shrub was Daphne laurel, also known as spurge laurel.

According to the Invasive Species Council of B.C., the plant's toxic sap can cause skin rashes, nausea, swelling of the tongue, even coma. A one-sheet from WorkSafeBC says a child in Nova Scotia once died from eating the small, black berries on the shrub. 

Gail Wallin, executive director of the Invasive Species Council of B.C., says spurge-laurel can quickly take over native vegetation.

"When you introduce a foreign species like this, you're actually upsetting the balance of nature there and will be creating a loss of habitat or food supply," Wallin said. 

Spurge-laurel has been spotted in Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. 

Grappolini says she first discovered the shrub a couple of years ago and removed it from the strata grounds.

She wore gloves, a mask and boots to protect herself against the sap and any airborne droplets, as recommended by WorkSafeBC.

But earlier this year, Grappolini spotted the spurge-laurel again, she says. 

"It's back with a vengeance," she said. "I went on a mission to get rid of it around our ... apartment building and then saw that it was all over."

Grappolini says the plant has infested the Comox Golf Club and is spreading to the surrounding properties.