Citrus trees

[Tygerr]

I'm busy preparing a new outdoor cage. I've already got Bougainvillea, Hibiscus and Camellia for the cage. I can't really use Ficus or Pothos in the cage because they will be exposed to too much sun.

One of the ideas I had was to use a lime tree in the cage. That way I could use some of the leaves for cooking as well.

But I can't find any information pertaining to the toxicity of citrus trees. I've checked all the regular sources (Melissa Kaplan, UCDavis, Cornell, Bluebeast, etc.) but none of them mention anything about Citrus trees (lime, oranges, lemons, kumquats).

The leaves are obviously not toxic to humans (otherwise I wouldn't be using them for cooking), but as Lele pointed out in a recent thread, you can't make any assumptions about plants/insects that don't come from the native habitat of the cham.

So does anyone have any information about whether lime trees are safe to use?

 

[Vampire.queen]

Hey ya!
Well, I can´t tell you anything about the citrus, but I can tell you that pothos and ficus will grow everywhere! My pothos is right under the heat bulb and grows pretty fast. And the ficus benjamin resists almost the same... .

 

[Jordan]

I could not say whether they are toxic or not. After I saw this thread I did some searching of my own but came up with nothing.

On a point that you brought up orange and lemon trees are native in Yemen. Now one problem you may find is called Citrus Bacterial Canker Disease (green citrus). This would unintentionally expose your chameleon to an excess of bacterial growth. There are effected areas in South Africa but I am not sure if it is an immediate problem in your exact area. I would ask around. I really could not see why a lime tree would be harmful to them.

 

[Laragail]

I wonder if there are any good botany books that have this kind of info?

 

[FaunaBgirl]

When I was first asked to "babysit" the female chameleon you see on my screen name here, I studied the area in which she was from to find out the terrain and it's foliage. But from there, I wanted to know where you would find chameleons most frequently hanging out. The best information would come from the guys that go chameleon hunting, I would think.
(I wish they would not do that anymore, that there could be a ban on plucking them by flashlight while they sleep.)