Return to Questions and Answers Index
Q&A
Questions and Answers:
QUESTION:
Is a catalpa tree harmful to a horse?
D. J.
ANSWER:
Although the nectar of the catalpa tree appears to be toxic to some ants, the catalpa tree is safe for horse pastures.
Here are two lists of trees -- the first shows trees that are generally safe for horse pastures; the second list shows trees that are hazardous to horses. Remember, of course, that too much of anything can be harmful!
Safe pasture trees:
- Northern catalpa
- Speckled alder (a larger native shrub that grows well on wet soggy soil and can provide some shade for livestock)
- Ash -- black, white, or green
- Aspen -- trembling and large-tooth
- Balsam fir
- Beech
- White cedar
- Sweet chestnut*
- Elm
- Hawthorn
- Eastern hemlock
- Honey-locust (not black locust!)
- Maple -- black, Manitoba, silver or sugar -- BUT NEVER RED, SCARLET, OR SOFT MAPLE!
- Osage-Orange
- Poplar
- spruce -- white, black, red, Colorado, and Norway
- staghorn sumac (upright, red, cone-shaped, seed head)
- sycamore
- tamarack (eastern larch)
- willows
*Native sweet chestnuts (the spreading chestnut tree under which the village smithy was said to stand) were decimated by chestnut blight disease across North America during the 1800's, however, there are some species recovery efforts being made.
Poisonous or potentially poisonous trees:
- Apple
- Boxwood
- Buckeye
- Butternuts
- Cherry
- Black cherry
- Red chokecherry
- Horse chestnuts
- Kentucky coffee tree
- Mountain laurel
- Black locust
- Oak -- white, red, and black
- Oleander
- Peach
- Pin cherry shrubs
- Privet
- Red maple -- also known as scarlet or soft maple -- distinguished by color and by the pointed or serrated edges of the leaves
- Walnuts
- Ornamental yews
Photo of a Clydesdale foal in front of a blooming catalpa tree courtesy of Doug and Janice Johnstone and family of Brigadoon Clydesdales, Claremont, Illinois -- www.brigadoonclydesdales.com
By a strange coincidence, the next e-mail question I received had to do with Clydesdales!
Previous Question
| Next Question
Return to Questions and Answers Index
Return to the "Learning More About Horses..." page
COPYRIGHT © 2007 BOB LEMEN, GRAND RAPIDS,
MINNESOTA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The contents of this document are not for reproduction.