As far as I know, they are poisonous if you should happen to eat them. The sap may cause a rash on skin, but unless you are in the habit of eating your garden plants, then all should be well.

Thanks Fractal cat ... I'll just stick to eating the conference pears and green gages then.

PS I did hear of someone though, suffered serious burns on their fingers, requiring medical treatment, after extracting seeds from green pods without using gloves.

Some people do seem susceptible to handling seeds of hellebores. We grow a number of hellebore and I collect seed from them for a seedex - bare fingers and no problem. The person with 'serious burns' must be very sensitive to the seeds.

Bulbaholic, thank you very much for your comments. I think you're right about 'different peoples sensitivity'
to the seeds. I feel a lot more comfortable now and will leave them in the garden for now.

The only thing I would add is that the smell from the leaves is very hard to get off your fingers if you happen to crush a leaf.
Like Bulbaholic, I have never had any problem with sensitivity to the seeds though.

Owdboggy thanks for taking the time to reply to my question. Much appreciated!

Maybe it's the same reason that some people have a nut allergy and most others don't. If you want to definitively find out if you're allergic to them then just rub a tiny bit of the plant onto the inside of your forearm and see what happens.

Hi Myron, thank you for commenting.

Thank you very much, for taking the time to let me know.