Wicked Plants: The A-Z of Plants that Kill, Maim, Intoxicate and Otherwise Offend - Hardcover

Stewart-amy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1604691271 ISBN 13: 9781604691276

Publisher: Timber Press, 2010

Synopsis

A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that
stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a climbing
plant that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war.
Bestselling author Amy Stewart takes on two hundred of
Mother Nature’s most appalling creations in an A to Z of
plants that kill, maim, intoxicate and otherwise offend.
Menacing botanical illustrations render a ghastly portrait
of evildoers that may be lurking in your back (or front)
garden. 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.

About this title

About the Author:

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.

From Booklist:

They may look sweet and innocent, but anyone who has ever broken out in a rash after picking a hyacinth blossom or burst into violent sneezing after sniffing a chrysanthemum knows that often the most beautiful flowers can pack the nastiest punch. This comes as no secret to mystery writers, who have long taken advantage of the nefarious properties of common garden plants to create the devices by which a deadly dose of poison is administered to an unsuspecting victim. But, as Stewart so entertainingly points out, such fiction is based on pure fact. There are plants that can kill with a drop of nectar, paralyze with the brush of a petal. From bucolic woodland streams choked by invasive purple loosestrife to languid southern fields overrun by kudzu, some plants are just more trouble than they’re worth. Culling legend and citing science, Stewart’s fact-filled, A–Z compendium of nature’s worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants. --Carol Haggas

About this edition

• Publisher: Timber Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1604691271
• ISBN 13: 9781604691276
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 236