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Excellent for plant-lovers and those just looking for a good yarn May 25, 2009 (55 of 61 found this helpful)
[[VIDEOID:34704111]]I'm a huge fan of Amy Stewart, and I've read everything she's written, including her bimonthly gardening column in our local newspaper and her writing at Garden Rant, so I was thrilled when I heard about her latest book, Wicked Plants.
I'm a pro gardener and a total plant geek, so reading all about the wicked deeds of the plants I know and love (and learning some new ones as well!) was a blast. But you don't have to know or even care much about plants to enjoy this book.
Amy blends the human stories and the plant details with such humor and depth that even the black-thumbed among us will enjoy reading. As she says, "I looked for plants that had an interesting backstory. There had to be a victim - a body count."
She goes on, "These are plants you do not want to meet in a dark alley." Indeed not. When I read about Mussolini's guys chasing Communists down the streets with bottles of castor oil, a laxative made from the beautiful but deadly Castor Bean, I just howled with laughter. Earlier, I'd read with bated breath how the KGB injected a tiny pellet of ricin, from the same plant, into Communist defectors to murder them. I think I'd prefer being chased by the Fascists!
The book itself is gorgeously done, with hand-drawn copper etchings of the plants, brown detailing on the pages which makes it look deliciously ancient, and one of those cool ribbon bookmarks. It would make a great gift book, and indeed, I've already bought three copies to give to friends - it's just that nice of a book.
I'm lucky enough to live locally to Amy Stewart, and she invited me to do a video review of the book in her Wicked Plants-inspired poison garden. In the video, Amy introduces us to a few of the botanical miscreants she writes about. Check it out!
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Hemlock, Opium, and Ratbane, oh my! Jun 17, 2009 (13 of 13 found this helpful)
Amy Stewart's //Wicked Plants// takes readers into the dark heart of the plant world, where innocent-looking berries kill and lovely flowers intoxicate. The book lists plant-life in alphabetical order, beginning with the deadly Aconite (responsible for killing two priests at a dinner party in 1856) to the Yew, known as "the graveyard tree" in England. Interspersed between the details of individual plants are quirky little lists: the plants used to make arrow poisons, commonly consumed crops that can prove fatal, the weeds of mass destruction hall of fame.
The details are fascinating. They include everything from the well-known (the Opium poppy as an illegal intoxicant), to the shocking (extract of Castor bean was allegedly used by KGB agents to murder a communist defector in 1978), to the downright bizarre (the Tanghin poison-nut was used in Madagascar as an ordeal poison).
Visually, the book is very pleasing, with nice old-fashioned text and delicate, detailed black and white copper etched illustrations. Ms. Stewart communicates her love of all things botanical with well-written and witty enthusiasm; her fascination is infectious. This book would be an admirable choice to read while sipping a cold drink (but hold the Hemlock!) in the garden.
Reviewed by
Michelle Kerns
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The cold nature of mother nature Jun 25, 2009 (16 of 17 found this helpful)
This is a thorough book, but don't take that the wrong way! It's full of charm and a sense of history, but it's really a book for the imagination. You will marvel at so many perilous things nature and pre-FDA entrepreneurs have in store for the unfortunate victims in this book. I don't want to ruin the surprises, but there's a lot of misfortune in this book!
Plenty of illustrations and stories, this makes a great lounge book for hosts who want a guest to have something to do for a few idle minutes.
The writing is intelligent and the topic is novel. I really appreciate that this is a carefully crafted and well thought out project, and you should come away wanting to meet the creative author.
But if anyone in your house wants to poison you, you better not leave this out!
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Danger in the grass Jul 18, 2009 (5 of 5 found this helpful)
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. The betel nut, which 400 million people chew as a stimulant, produces a red saliva that stains the streets of countries where it grows. Plants aren't just a nuisance, they are deadly.
Instead of giving new parents another set of crib sheets for the newborn, consider this book. It doesn't hurt for parents to know that they were wrong about the poinsettia but in the dark about the potentially fatal effects of the bleeding heart and azaleas now in bloom. By the way, never nibble yew. Every part of it except the fetching red berries is poisonous. Called the "graveyard tree" in England, it does produce an extract used to make the cancer treatment drug Taxol.
You'll read about addictive and mind-altering plants and fungi, the invasive plants clogging our fields and waterways and a killer algae smothering ocean floors. These plants are wicked and indestructible. The hearty coca plant, for instance, produces three crops a year and the alkaloids in the leaves produce a natural pesticide. Stewart writes that Freud tried cocaine and reported that he felt "unbelievably well" as if "everything had been erased."
Stewart made a stop at the Peabody Essex Museum on Thursday and will be at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on May 31. At the back of her book she lists a number of poison gardens, including gardens in Philadelphia and Ithaca that are associated with medical schools. She also tends her own poison garden at home in northern California.
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Wickedly Entertaining Sep 12, 2009 (2 of 2 found this helpful)
As plant person on a mission to convince people that plants are not only essential to our lives but also fascinating, this book is a terrific treasure trove of information. You could read it cover to cover (and it is a lively, entertaining read) or leave it on your desk or coffee table and browse through the chapters at leisure. It is not a botany text book, so the information it provides is limited in scope, but it's just a matter of Googling around to find out more. Also, it's artful design makes it a lovely gift.