Frangula Species, California Buckthorn, California Coffeeberry

I have three of these planted in my yard. They've been in the ground for less than a month, but appear to be doing well. I have high hope...Read Mores, as I see many thriving in my neighborhood. Like so many California natives, there's a lot of conflicting information about these, particularly in the area of toxicity. Frangula California is listed here as "toxic," but numerous sites, including the Golden Gate Conservancy, say that berries are edible: [HYPERLINK@www.parksconservancy.org]

I planted four of these as part of a landscape project this spring and summer. (I know CA natives should be planted in the fall, but thi...Read Mores was a summer landscape job.) Every other shrub in the garden is thriving. I was careful of the water, trying to balance the needs of a newly planted shrub and those of a drought tolerant native. Three of the four croaked. They didn't all die at the same time but when they did, it happened pretty quickly. What gives? I would give them a positive if they'd lived!

Have a new plant just recently purchased at a native plant sale. Saw the reference to all parts of the plant being toxic and was concern...Read Moreed as we were not told this when we purchased. Further searching and I located another reference that describes how the plant/berries/bark/root etc have been used medicinally and now I'm totally confused. Anyone have any experience with this plant or it's toxicity? Here's the reference I located : http://herb.umd.umich.edu/herb/search.pl?searchstring=Frangu...