Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities »

Amy Stewart’s essays and commentaries have appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Garden Design, Organic Gardening, and elsewhere. She has been featured on NPR, Good Morning America, and CBS Sunday Morning. For more information, go to www.amystewart.com.

Briony Morrow-Cribbs studied studied art at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, and currently lives in Brattleboro, Vermont, where she owns and operates Twin Vixen Press.

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln's mother).

Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.

Contents

Consider Yourself Warned....................1
Aconite....................3
Arrow Poisons....................7
Ayahuasca Vine and Chacruna....................11
Betel Nut....................15
Castor Bean....................17
Ordeal Poisons....................21
Coca....................25
Coyotillo....................27
This Houseplant Could Be Your Last....................31
Deadly Nightshade....................35
Death Camas....................37
Deadly Dinner....................43
Ergot....................46
Fatal Fungus....................51
Habanero Chili....................55
Henbane....................57
The Devil's Bartender....................63
Iboga....................67
Jimson Weed....................70
Botanical Crime Families....................75
Khat....................79
Killer Algae....................82
Stop and Smell the Ragweed....................87
Kudzu....................89
Lawn of Death....................93
Mala Mujer....................95
Here Comes the Sun....................99
Manchineel Tree....................101
Don't Look Now....................105
Mandrake....................109
Marijuana....................113
Oleander....................116
Forbidden Garden....................121
Opium Poppy....................124
Dreadful Bouquet....................129
Peacock Flower....................133
Peyote Cactus....................135
Psychedelic Plants....................139
Poison Hemlock....................143
Purple Loosetrife....................146
Weeds of Mass Destruction....................151
Ratbane....................155
Rosary Pea....................157
The Terrible Toxicodendrons....................161
Sago Palm....................163
More Than One Way to Skin a Cat....................167
Stinging Tree....................169
Meet the Nettles....................173
Strychnine Tree....................177
Suicide Tree....................179
Carnivores....................183
Tobacco....................187
Toxic Blue-Green Algae....................189
Duck and Cover....................193
Water Hemlock....................197
Water Hyacinth....................200
Social Misfists....................207
Whistling Thorn Acacia....................209
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner....................213
White Snakeroot....................216
Don't Tread on Me....................221
END NOTES....................227
Antidote....................229
About the Artists....................231
Poison Gardens....................233