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

What 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

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piece!

Very informative and very interesting.

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This enjoyable book is a collection encyclopedia-like entries covering infamous plants that can damage, maim, and kill. Amy Stewart introduces her perusal of wicked plants with an introduction that sets the tone for the ensuing materials, in a voice that is humorous and relatable, with words that

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convey a wary respect. Clearly, Stewart admires the versatility of the plant world and some of the crazy adaptations that abound, but also hopes to educate people on taking plant life more seriously. Don't take hikes in the wood and just eat whatever you see growing on the side of the trail, people! Honestly, after reading this book, I am feeling much more paranoid about the seemingly harmless plants all around me. Not so much for me, since I am not in the habit of eating greenery that doesn't come for the grocery store, as for my young girls. I am also more in awe of the botanical world, which is far more unusual and potent than I had realized.

After the introduction, the book is arranged with an alphabetical presentation of nearly forty wicked plants, with each entry providing information on where the plant grows, how it was discovered, how people have used it in different times and places, and any other interesting anecdotes attached to the leafy menace. The description also includes the plant's scientific names and a listing of its relatives, other varieties in the same plant family. These detailed accounts are interspersed with small essays that examine a broader topic, such as plants that are deadly to animals, plants that create hallucinations, and so on. The information is supplemented with fabulous illustrations which sort into two categories: the detailed and realistic depiction of each plant, and the creepy pictures that go along with the intermittent essays. The combination of all these elements creates a quirky package of a book that I adore, with a snarky sense of humor that can run dark at times, factual information delivered in an inviting manner, and a beautiful cover that is perfectly suited to the material. In my mental image of the ideal library, I have vague notions of obscure books that are full of mythology and animal and plant lore, and this little nonfiction book captures a small part of that essential librariness that I dreamed up. Plus it's educational and fun to read. I am quite pleased that I found this treasure on a casual trip to the bookstore.

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First 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.

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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.

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A 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

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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.

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After 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

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holds some very interesting surprises. Even if you couldn't care less about botany (again, me), you will still find this intriguing and engaging.

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Amy 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.

A fascinating, browsable book on deadly plants.

Who knew plants could be so interesting? Stewart takes readers through some of the most deadly plants in existence and includes anecdotes about their impact on historical figures. From the Salem witch trials to ancient Greece, dangerous plants have had a huge impact. Even familiar things like

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kidney beans or cashews can be dangerous if not properly prepared. To me the biggest take away is that we should never underestimate the power of nature or trust a random leaf or berry that looks edible.

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I 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

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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.

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If you need to research some clever poisons for your next murder mystery, you could do worse than start your search for candidates here. It's a quick and readable introduction to the wide world of dangerous plants, with the fun and exciting (well, if you share some of my gallows humor) basics on

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the major ones plus the relatives of these dangerous plants.

But that's not all this book offers. It's not just clever murder methods. It's also the stuff won't kill you (probably), but will make you sick and very uncomfortable. It's the stuff it would never occur to you to eat, but might kill your animals.

It's the stuff you probably don't want to plant in your garden, especially if you have allergies, or care about people who do.

It's the invasive plants that are choking waterways.

It's the nasty stuff that global warming will help invade areas currently free of it.

It's those fascinating carnivorous plants.

Did I mention it's a lot of fun?

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.

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Amy Stewart documents the bad behavior of naughty botanicals in her “Wicked Plants”. This bad behavior ranges in classification from Painful, Illegal, Dangerous and Intoxicating to Deadly. Some will not surprise you, most people know that poison ivy causes a rash, that smoking tobacco can kill

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you, and that nettles sting. However, did you know that raw cashews can cause the same symptoms as poison ivy? Or that Water Hemlock, one of the most dangerous plants in the US , looks just like a carrot and has a pleasant, sweet taste? This little book is packed full of useful information, fun facts, and interesting historical details. I was fascinated to learn that the Salem Witch Trials were almost certainly caused by a fungus and that Socrates died from drinking a tea made from Poison Hemlock.
The book is beautifully put together. It features 40 intricate and detailed illustrations of plants. A second artist created gruesome and hysterical cartoons showing the consequences of relations with the various naughty plants in the book. Catchy chapter headings like “More Than One Way to Skin a Cat”, concise entries, and fascinating anecdotes make this a fun, easy read. I highly recommend this book for gardeners and nature enthusiasts!

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What I learned from this book: All plants want to kill you.

Wicked 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,

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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.

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I may never garden, hike or go outside again! Eeeeek! They are out to get us, and I'm not sure how we've survived this long. If you don't get the lesson by the end of this book that it's a bad idea to go on a tasting spree with unknown (and often known) plants, then you never will, and the best of

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luck to you. On the other hand, this was a compelling read, I thought with each poisonous plant I read about, well, that has to be the worst, the rest can't possibly be as bad as that, then I would read on to find that one of my plant darlings was a horrible serial murderer's tool, and sometimes a willing accomplice! The artwork and illustrations are perfect, the quality of the published book fine. It was a pleasure to hold and turn the pages. In the back of the book she lists botanical gardens which feature wicked plants, and one of them is in the garden of the castle which was used as Hogwarts in the filming of the first two movies. Nice.

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This is the one book that should be on the reference shelf of every suspense, thriller or horror novelist.

In an A to Z such as you have never read before, Stewart lays out the chemical nature of over two hundred plants that can be used to kill, blind, paralyze or at the very least, leave your

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victim curled up in bed very ill.

From deadly nightshade to killer algae, ratbane to hemlock, Stewart lays it all out on the line. If you want to kill off your victim in some mysterious, painful and particularly nasty way, she has a toxin to get the job done. White Snake root is what does in Mrs. Lincoln (Abe's mother). Known as milk sickness, the plant contaminated folks in the early-farm life of America, often wiping out entire families.

Written in entertaining jargon, hitting on the scientific, the historical and the medicinal, Stewart enlightens us to the use of weeds, plants and seeds and advises to “consider yourself warned”.

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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

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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.

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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

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natural world, poisons or medicine generally.

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A 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.

The 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

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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!!

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I 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.

Could 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

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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.

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Offers many interesting facts on plants that people may not have realized were poisonous and many interesting stories on the history of these plants. While the line drawings were beautiful, sometimes I would have appreciated an actual photograph to be sure that the author was referring to the plant

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I thought she was referring to.

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A 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

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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)

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I 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

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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!

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