Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
256
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
256Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9785961472684 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Alpina Publisher |
| Publication date: | 05/03/2023 |
| Sold by: | Bookwire |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 12 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |
| Language: | Russian |
About the Author
AudioFile Earphones Award winner Coleen Marlo has earned numerous Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards and won an Audie Award for her narration of Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga.
Read an Excerpt
Wicked Plants
THE WEED THAT KILLED LINCOLN'S MOTHER & OTHER BOTANICAL ATROCITIESBy Amy Stewart
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Copyright © 2009 Amy StewartAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-56512-683-1
Chapter One
AconiteACONITUM NAPELLUS
In 1856 a dinner party in the Scottish village of Dingwall came to a horrible end. A servant had been sent outside to dig up horseradish, but instead he uprooted aconite, also called monkshood. The cook, failing to recognize that she had been handed the wrong ingredient, grated it into a sauce for the roast and promptly killed two priests who were guests at the dinner. Other guests were sickened but survived.
Even today, aconite is easily mistaken for an edible herb. This sturdy, low-growing herbaceous perennial is found in gardens and in the wild throughout Europe and the United States. The spikes of blue flowers give the plant its common name "monkshood" because the uppermost sepal is shaped like a helmet or a hood. All parts of the plant are extremely toxic. Gardeners should wear gloves anytime they go near it, and backpackers should not be tempted by its white, carrot-shaped root. The Canadian actor Andre Noble died of aconite poisoning after he encountered it on a hiking trip in 2004.
The poison, an alkaloid called aconitine, paralyzes the nerves, lowers the blood pressure, and eventually stops the heart. (Alkaloids are organic compounds that in many cases have some kind of pharmacological effect on humans or animals.) Swallowing the plant or its roots can bring on severe vomiting and then death by asphyxiation. Even casual skin contact can cause numbness, tingling, and cardiac symptoms. Aconitine is so powerful that Nazi scientists found it useful as an ingredient for poisoned bullets.
In Greek mythology, deadly aconite sprang from the spit of the three-headed hound Cerberus as Hercules dragged it out of Hades. Legend has it that it got another of its common names, wolfsbane, because ancient Greek hunters used it as a bait and arrow poison to hunt wolves. Its reputation as a witch's potion from the Middle Ages earned it a starring role in the Harry Potter series, where Professor Snape brews it to assist Remus Lupin in his transformation to a werewolf.
Meet the Relatives Related to aconite are the lovely blue and white Aconitum cammarum; the delphinium-like A. carmichaelii; and the yellow A. lycoctonum, commonly referred to as wolfsbane.
FAMILY: Ranunculaceae
HABITAT: Rich, moist garden soil, temperate climates
NATIVE TO: Europe
COMMON NAMES: Wolfsbane, monkshood, leopard's bane
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart Copyright © 2009 by Amy Stewart. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Consider Yourself Warned....................1Aconite....................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
What People are Saying About This
"Culling legend and citing science, Stewart's fact-filled, AZ compendium of nature's worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants." —-Booklist