I was always sort of apprehensive to try new things, much less so these days, but even touching a plant I wasn't familiar with was off limits. Eat a wild blueberry or raspberry? Hell no!

Turns out most stuff out there is pretty harmless, but others not so much. We've all heard of poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac and more, but what about the other stuff?

It's summer and it's beautiful, so look, but don't touch! Let's explore some plants and flowers to stay away from...

5 toxic to touch or ingest plants in Massachusetts

1. Monkshood

Beautiful and purple, but do not grow if you have children. Its deadly poison, aconitine, can enter the body from the skin as well as the mouth.

2. Lantana

Bright and tropical, the fruit is the most toxic.

Green unripe fruits of the plant are toxic to humans. Ingestion of the flowers, fruits, and leaves can cause vomiting, diarrhea, difficulty breathing, and liver failure, while the leaves can cause contact dermatitis.

3. Yew

These sticky centered berries looked harmless as kids, but they aren't! But all parts of the Yew is TOXIC, including the stone in the middle of the Yew Berry (NO chewing and NO swallowing).

4. Ditch Lilly

Contact with this orange beauty's pollen is very harmful to cats. Humans who consume it have gastrointestinal issues following ingestion.

5. Pokeweed

All parts are poisonous, particularly roots, shoots, and unripe berries. Contact with pokeweed with likely cause a painful rash with blisters very similar to that of poison ivy.

Photos after contact with Pokeweed

Looks painful and annoying!