Poinsettias provide a splash of festive color to our homes and churches around the Christmas season, but there is also a dark side to this beautiful plant–the fact that many people consider it to be poisonous.  But is it really harmful to humans?

According to the American Medical Association, the poinsettia plant is actually not poisonous. In fact, the only potential side effect, if you eat enough poinsettia leaves, is stomach upset and vomiting. Not pleasant, to say the least, but certainly not fatal.

So where did this confusion come from? Snopes.com writers feel that the confusion may be because the poinsettia is a member of the genus Euphorbia, which includes several plants that are toxic. The poinsettia, however, is not one of them. This rumor dates all the way back to 1919, when a two-year-old child on an Army base in Hawaii died of poisoning, and he was incorrectly assumed to have eaten a poinsettia leaf.

Pet owners have also been warned to keep poinsettias out of their homes due to possible poison concerns to animals, but this myth is also unfounded. Again, all your pet will likely experience is stomach upset and vomiting, unless he or she has eaten something else that truly is poisonous.

So don’t panic if you see a child or pet eat a leaf from you poinsettia plant. Chances are, they will spit it out anyhow because the taste of the leaves is extremely bitter. According to The Plant Man, a child would have to eat 500 or 600 poinsettia leaves to exceed the experimental doses tested by Poisindex, the reference used by Poison Control centers. With such a reportedly horrible flavor, it’s unlikely anyone-human or animal-would ingest that many leaves.

You still may want to keep your pets away from the poinsettias though, if for no other reason than to avoid finding a nasty surprise on the rug.