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Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
Scris de Amy Stewart
Povestit de Coleen Marlo
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Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly.
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. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.
Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, enlighten, and alarm even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
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. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.
Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, enlighten, and alarm even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
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Începeți să ascultațiInformații despre carte
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
Scris de Amy Stewart
Povestit de Coleen Marlo
Descriere
Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly.
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. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.
Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, enlighten, and alarm even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
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. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.
Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, enlighten, and alarm even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
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A thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating journey through predominantly an American botanical diorama. This looks at poison, offensive and carnivorous plants as well as general irritants. Highly recommended as an introductory text for those with an interest, or those that have an interest in the natural world, poisons or medicine generally.
Rating: 4★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
Like: Wowie!..... What a wonderful little book (and it is Green, just like the plants). Lots of useful information.....
It corroborated what I keep telling people I know: When I eat spicy hot food, I always want a beer, wine, or margarita because it stops the heat and water makes it worse: "Capsaicin does not dissolve in water.......A good stiff drink is also in order, as the alcohol works as a solvent".... To all my friends: I TOLD YOU SO!
Raw Cashews are poisonous, so they are semi-cooked when shelling them.... they Steam them open, thus a form of cooking, eating the shell, even a small amount id toxic.
Nicotine can be deadly absorbed through the skin.....
So why -1/2 star? Because there were no color pictures, the graphics were well executed pencil drawings.
Wicked Plants is organized in a weird way, but very clear in all of its definitions.
Rating: 5poisons, drugs, history, botanical lore, parasites,
Rating: 5reference, botany, gardening, poisons A calculated and well researched compendium of poisonous and questionable botanical plants including anecdotal bits about each one and its plant relatives. With some the lethal aspects are in the dosing but with others that isn't true. The plan of chapters is a bit mystifying, but overall it is a reference book with reality tales.Coleen Marlo does a creditable job as narrator.
Rating: 4Wicked Plants is a fascinating collection of facts and anecdotes about plants that are dangerous. The plants are listed alphabetically with the description of the plant features and their dangerous effects. Most listings are accompanied by an interesting story about how the plant has been harmful, and some contain a social history of the plants legality.
The biggest surprise for me while reading this book was how many common plants, even those we eat, have harmful effects. I learned that cashews, for example, have to be steamed open. If the nut even touches the cashew shell it can cause someone to handles or eats it to break out in a rash. Another is celery, which contains phototoxic compounds.
"Farm workers and handlers of celery routinely get burns on their skin that show up under sunlight, and people who eat large quantities of celery are at risk as well. One medical journal cited a case of a woman who ate celery root and then went to a tanning booth, ending up with a severe sunburn." Page 96
The book covers a wide range of plants, from those that are developed into illegal drugs, such as coca (the source of cocaine) to common house and garden plants that are lethal. I was fascinated by the history of the usage of some plants, such as the coca plant and the kola nut, both the original ingredients in Coca-Cola.
". . . coca extract is still believed to be a flavoring, just without the cocaine alkaloid. The leaves are legally imported by an American manufacturer, which buys it from Peru's National Coca Company, transforms it into Coca-Cola's secret flavoring, and extracts the cocaine for pharmaceutical use as a topical anesthetic." Page 22
Each plant has its own small section, making it a book that is easy to pick up and read when you have a few spare moments. I had a hard time stopping myself from pestering my husband with some of the stories because there were so unusual.
The illustrations were lovely. I am not a plant expert, so I don't think I would actually be able to identify the plants from the monochromatic drawings, but they were nice to look at. There is also a ribbon bookmark built into the book, which I thought was a nice feature.
If you have any interest in plants, or simply have a morbid curiosity about the many ways that plants can hurt and kill you, then you should love this book.
Rating: 4The biggest surprise for me while reading this book was how many common plants, even those we eat, have harmful effects. I learned that cashews, for example, have to be steamed open. If the nut even touches the cashew shell it can cause someone to handles or eats it to break out in a rash. Another is celery, which contains phototoxic compounds.
"Farm workers and handlers of celery routinely get burns on their skin that show up under sunlight, and people who eat large quantities of celery are at risk as well. One medical journal cited a case of a woman who ate celery root and then went to a tanning booth, ending up with a severe sunburn." Page 96
The book covers a wide range of plants, from those that are developed into illegal drugs, such as coca (the source of cocaine) to common house and garden plants that are lethal. I was fascinated by the history of the usage of some plants, such as the coca plant and the kola nut, both the original ingredients in Coca-Cola.
". . . coca extract is still believed to be a flavoring, just without the cocaine alkaloid. The leaves are legally imported by an American manufacturer, which buys it from Peru's National Coca Company, transforms it into Coca-Cola's secret flavoring, and extracts the cocaine for pharmaceutical use as a topical anesthetic." Page 22
Each plant has its own small section, making it a book that is easy to pick up and read when you have a few spare moments. I had a hard time stopping myself from pestering my husband with some of the stories because there were so unusual.
The illustrations were lovely. I am not a plant expert, so I don't think I would actually be able to identify the plants from the monochromatic drawings, but they were nice to look at. There is also a ribbon bookmark built into the book, which I thought was a nice feature.
If you have any interest in plants, or simply have a morbid curiosity about the many ways that plants can hurt and kill you, then you should love this book.
I enjoyed reading this book and think it would be a good fit for anyone who likes to gather trivia. Lots of common plants that we see daily are featured here and will make you take a second look at the gorgeous garden next doorl
Rating: 3I found this kind of repetitive and... well, frankly, a little boring. I wanted more stories about real people, on the order of the Lincoln's mom story. There were lots of little informative bits, but not as many anecdotes as I thought I'd be getting. I was also a little skeptical of some of the information, especially on psychedelic plants.
Rating: 2I enjoyed this little volume. It is lighthearted but informative, although not in-depth. It is the sort of book that makes me want to go dig up more information on this topic. I have a "brown thumb" and do not enjoy gardening, and have never had a great affinity for plants, but these are some amazing examples. I am constantly amazed by nature and the bizarre adaptations its plants and animals resort to.I like the quaint design of this book and its companion, Wicked Bugs, as well, but at times I wished for photographs rather than line drawings. Guess that's what I'll have to look for if I ever go digging for more information on wicked plants and bugs!
Rating: 3An interesting non-fiction work. It is curious to see how many botanicals in our homes or yars are lethal to people or animals, even ones we have easily within reach. A short book with an unusual topic.
Rating: 3fabulous fun read.. visitors to my garden beware..
Rating: 4What I learned from this book: All plants want to kill you.
Rating: 4Such a fun book to read! Amy Stewart's writing style is wonderful and really added to the topic of the book. She captured the notoriousness of these plants and made them come alive with their sinister and evil natures. As a gardener, I was intrigued with the number of toxic plants, all the while, wishing I could actually see one of these plants in real life - save for the poison ivy and stinging nettles. Really clever topic and very witty in it's delivery!
Rating: 5Rating: 3.5* of fiveThe Book Report: Bite-sized reports of the horrible horrible scary itchy deadly horrible doings of the Kingdom Plantae. Illustrated with beautiful woodcuts by [[Briony Morrow-Cribbs]], that are, by themselves, worth the price of the book.My Review: I swear I have never bathed so often as when I read this book. Hibiclens, pHisoHex, witch hazel, lavender water...every cleansing agent I possess...applied to every inch of my quite sizable person, at least three or four times for every plant I read about. Even my shoulder hair is falling out from over-washing. (There go the last long, wavy locks I'll ever have....)*Most* satisfyingly, the horrid, nasty, icky-ptoo-ptoo nonfood CORN is included in the book! (Yes it is too: pp38-39...comes in for harsh treatment because the body *can't use it* in kernel form! Take THAT corn-on-the-cobbers! Horrible stuff, corn on the cob. Oughta be banned.)So many awful horrible, itch-inducing theings described in one small place would normally mean stay the heck away from it, but Stewart really does a fine job of making her villains fascinating, if not sympathetic. Hope she writes a novel one day soon.
Rating: 4A diverting subject, but the delivery wasn't as entertaining as I expected. It fell on the line between diverting read and reference book. The only thing it needed to be a reference book was an index (which it could have benefited from, because not all the plants mentioned in the book were listed in the table of contents), better pictures (I still don't know what most of the plants look like), and slightly more scientific descriptions. Besides that the anecdotes and little bits of history were interesting and the overall concept was interesting.Snack Lit rating: veggie (pun intended)
Rating: 3Could have been exponentially better if only it had had pictures! I kept referring to Wikipedia while reading the book to get an idea of what each plant looked like and where it was usually found, but that gets tiresome.I really love this kind of book. Small blurbs that are just enough to get you interested in looking up more information sometimes... but I don't want to do it for each and every entry!The book is a lot of fun to read. As a fan of books like The Book of Lists and that sort of genre, it's right up my alley. BUT, if there's any book that *needs* pictures more... . Maybe another enhanced edition is possible? I really think that if it had only had pictures, I would be complaining about not being able to give MORE than five stars.
Rating: 4Sort of interesting, but not as much so as I had hoped when I heard the author interviewed on the radio.
Rating: 3I didn't read this so much as skimmed it and read the more interesting entries. It's a wonderfully morbid book. I now know more about poisonous plants than I ever thought I would.
Rating: 3First Line: A tree sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed stops the heart; a shrub causes intolerable pain; a vine intoxicates; a leaf triggers a war. Within the plant kingdom lurk unfathomable evils.If you're the classic "townie" and know nothing about plants or gardening, read this book. You'll be on the receiving end of an enjoyable education. That is, unless you're a Nervous Nellie. Then you may throw out any houseplants you have and refuse to step outside your door.If you're someone like me who grew up weeding the garden, helping her grandmother out in her flowerbeds, or tromping around in the woods, read this book. Unless you have a degree in botanical poisons and trivia, you'll still be on the receiving end of an enjoyable education.I grew up having been taught not to put everything in my mouth. I grew up having been taught that plants weren't always my friends. (Just ask my allergies.) I would also suppose that my penchant for crime fiction might also make me slightly more knowledgeable about the plant kingdom. Regardless of how much I already knew, I learned still more by reading this book.This well-illustrated little volume has been stuffed with knowledge by author Amy Stewart. She includes "over 200 of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend." The short chapters are perfect for dipping into when only a few minutes are available to read, and they are packed with information. Latin names are included, but Stewart uses layman's terms to keep confusion at an absolute minimum.Although I was familiar with many of the plants contained in this volume, I learned tons of fascinating history and trivia. I was also pleased to see that Stewart has been to the one and only poison garden that I have visited: the one at Alnwick Garden. In fact, the cover of Wicked Plants strongly reminds me of the gates to the Poison Garden there.It's easy to learn more about these plants: Stewart has included lists of gardens and additional books for reading in the back. Novice or expert, you're bound to find something of interest in Wicked Plants.
Rating: 5Wicked Plants is a fascinating and wonderful collection of facts, stories, and information on a variety of intoxicating, illegal, dangerous, and deadly plants-many of which you might be surprised to realize you grow, care for, expose your children and/or pets to, or eat on a regular basis. Amy Stewart makes the information accessible to the non-scientist. Her background as a gardener and a writer makes it effortless to convey the information (which is well researched) to those of us that are n ...more Wicked Plants is a fascinating and wonderful collection of facts, stories, and information on a variety of intoxicating, illegal, dangerous, and deadly plants-many of which you might be surprised to realize you grow, care for, expose your children and/or pets to, or eat on a regular basis. Amy Stewart makes the information accessible to the non-scientist. Her background as a gardener and a writer makes it effortless to convey the information (which is well researched) to those of us that are not scientifically minded.The chapters are arranged alphabetically and contain facts about the plant, information regarding the plant's potentially dangerous properties, and interesting anecdotes that usually pertain to the death of someone by this plant (including information regarding Lincoln's mother, whose death resulted from a plant featured in the book).The book reads fast and, while not without technical information, is not overloaded with unreadable paragraphs describing the plants. All-in-all, not a bad way to spend an evening.I'd give it a 7-8/10.
Rating: 4A fascinating, browsable book on deadly plants.
Rating: 4The book itself is well crafted, a book you'll be proud to have in your collection. Bound in green, with sketches (by Jonathon Rosen) and etchings (by Briony Morrow-Cribbs) of each plant described in exacting detail. A ribbon bookmark to keep your place accentuates the entire package.The plants are listed in several categories according to toxicity. Deadly,dangerous,illegal,intoxicating,destructive, painful and offensive are the headings for each. Plants are listed in alphabetical order with family, habitat, where they are native to and common names for each. Also noted are plants that fall in the same families (i.e. 'relatives'). 'A weed killed Abraham Lincoln's mother. A shrub nearly blinded Frederick Law Olmstead, America's most famous landscape architect. A flowering bulb sickened members of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Poison hemlock killed Socrates, and the most wicked weed of all - tobacco - has claimed over ninety million lives!' Easy to read in short chapters, followed by a bibliography and related web link information this volume by author Amy Stewart succeeds on several levels. It's informative, intriguing and a darn fun read all the while. Give it a try!!
Rating: 5A gorgeous book, bound in acid green, with illustrations throughout. This is a great book for browsing and is lots of fun to read aloud. It's quirky but terribly informative.
Rating: 5What a cool book! I have not read it through but I have read many sections late at night. When I get through the entire thing I will have to move it to a more visible spot in my apartment - this is the kind of book I want my friends to know I read. I love it when a book can be a conversation piece!Very informative and very interesting.
Rating: 4After I read this book I thought it would make a lovely Christmas gift for my father, who is a botanist. It turned out to be a bit of a wash-out for him -- he knew all this stuff already and re-reading these facts didn't much interest him. However, if you are ignorant of plants (like me), this book holds some very interesting surprises. Even if you couldn't care less about botany (again, me), you will still find this intriguing and engaging.
Rating: 4I saw this book and just thought it would be an interesting read. Besides who can resist the title "Wicked Plants"?Basically the book goes through many different types of plants that are "Wicked". This means they are either deadly, illegal, destructive, painful, intoxicating, or dangerous...you get the idea. There are two types of entries in the book. The first are pages dedicated to a single plant. These have an etching of the plant on one page and then a description of why the plant is "wicked" and some history about notable events that the plant has caused. Up in the top corner of the page it tells you a one word "why" of the plant's wickedness ("Destructive", "Deadly"). I liked these entries the best.The second type of entry is a section on a certain general types of plant. For example there is a section on deadly houseplants. These sections have small sub-sections of different types of plants that they go through; no pictures. I have to mention the print is pretty small in these general sections, might be hard to read for some people. The two types of entries alternate.The information is amusing and interesting, the etchings of the plants are beautiful; it is too bad they were not in color. I kind of wished that there were more interesting stories about individual plants. I really liked the entries on individual plants the best. I found myself skimming through the second type of entry (general entries briefly describing a ton of plants). These general sections didn't have any nice illustrations and shad very mall print and weren't nearly as interesting as the ones that focused on individual plants. I also thought the illustrations (not the etchings) left a bit to be desired; they were very amateurish and didn't add much to the book.The book itself is a work of art. The pages are all on off-white paper that looks like vellum, and there is a pretty silk ribbon in the binding for you to mark your spot in the book with.All in all I enjoyed the book. Not something you would read everyday but it would make a good coffee table book and it is interesting to read through the whole thing once. I am glad I read it.
Rating: 4A very interesting look into poisonous and dangerous plants that surround us in our everyday environment. I would recommend this to gardeners and anyone concerned for the continued well-being of our planet. Although the illustrations were skillfully done, I would have liked to have seen actual photographs of the plants discussed in its pages. No doubt there are books out there that do just that, but this was a nice, pocket-sized introduction to plants that we just might walk by everyday and not realize how close to death we are! haha.
Rating: 4Amy Steward does a wonderful job taking the reader on a brief horticultural tour of some of the worlds most invasive, poisonous, and rather inconvenient plants. While this book may not be detailed enough for hard-core botanist, it does provide ample information for people with a casual curiosity.
Rating: 5A reference book that reads like a novel with short but interesting entries about the plant worlds most intriguing and dangerous members. Near the end of the book we learn that Abraham Lincoln's mother, Nancy, died from White Snakeroot, aka "milk sickness" in Little Pigeon Creek, Indiana in 1834? I found out that many common garden plants can also be a threat to humans and pets, from Morning Glory seeds to Tulip bulbs. Who knew?
Rating: 5I enjoyed this handsome little compendium of plant facts and lore. But it's also scary too. There's more than a few plants in this book that I never want to come in contact with. One that is native to Australia called the stinging tree can leave you in pain for up to a year. I also learned about several very invasive species of plants that are taking over both land and sea. There was also poisonous plants that need only hours to kill you after ingesting; and plants good for getting high (mostly mildly) although some of them look very much like other plants that will kill you. Lesson learned? Just say no. This book includes handsome etchings.
Rating: 3