Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities Hardcover Author: Visit Amazon's Amy Stewart Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1565126831 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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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
Review
""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
--This text refers to the
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- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Algonquin Books; 1 edition (May 21, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1565126831
- ISBN-13: 978-1565126831
- Product Dimensions: 7 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
"Wicked Plants" is a pocket-sized 235-page book that is very entertaining, enlightening (for example, red kidney beans are poisonous if not cooked thoroughly), and easy to read. The author covers some of the common plants, fungus and other related genre of the natural world that are deadly, dangerous, or just irritating to humans and animals. She also talks about some of the myths and truths associated with some of these plants.
I consider "Wicked Plants" an excellent reference except for two drawbacks. First, it doesn't have an index. If, for example, you remember that XXX was dangerous you'd have to flip through the entire book to find it. Second, there are no color photos for the plants discussed, only pencil sketches are shown.
In summary, this book is not a complete reference nor is it a typical book either. However, "Wicked Plants" balances entertainment, fact, and myths about plants and related "items" of the natural world in one neat little package.
I gave this book three stars because of the absence of an index and no color pictures. However, I still consider this a worthwhile purchase. If it had these items, I would have given it 4-1/2 to 5 stars. If you have a Kindle, then the Kindle edition would resolve the lack of an index because of its search capability.
Since I intend to use this book as one of several valuable references in my library, I am sharing below the alphabetical list of the plants or fungus outlined in the 2009 version of the hardcover book that I created for myself. Please note that this list is not all inclusive as it excludes the scientific names and the "meet the relatives" plants that were mentioned throughout the text. This list is also messy due to the lack of tabbing ability in this review.
If you believe your home is your castle, fortified against a world of dangers, you might want to reconsider. Amy Stewart's new book, "Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities," gives us a delightful tour of the perils thriving right under our nose.
"Wicked Plants" is a nicely illustrated, upbeat examination of vegetation that can kill, addict, torment and torture. There's nothing benign about that philodendron wending its steady, picturesque way around your mantle. As for that undercooked kidney bean, eat five like it and you'll think you ate a peck of rotten clams. Nature knows no shame. Heart failure, paralysis, vomiting, psychosis, skin ulcers and other horrors, including death, can be induced from plants in your own backyard. Every mystery writer in search of the perfect murder should buy a copy of "Wicked Plants."
Amy Stewart's storytelling talents, combined with her subject matter, make her the Stephen King of gardening lore. About hemlock, she writes:
"The death that hemlock delivers is, from outward appearances, an easy one. Mr. Gow [his children accidentally made him a sandwich with poison hemlock greens] stumbled about drunkenly, his limbs gradually became paralyzed, and eventually the poison stopped his heart and lungs. The doctor attending the death reported that `the Intellect was perfectly clear until shortly before death.'"
While most gardeners pore over seed catalogs, anti-gardeners gather indisputable arguments for inertia from Stewart's book. In her chapter on offensive plants and social misfits, she points to the stench of the skunk cabbage, the wet dog scent of the stinking benjamin, the repugnant emissions of the rare corpse flower. Ingest a bit of slobber weed and prepare for the onslaught of a couple of pints of saliva.
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