Book Review: Wicked Plants

I tend to be one of those types who is fascinated by the landscaper's rejects, and loves to research what sprouts up uninvited in her garden. For me, it's fun to know what's in the yard, and whether it's useful, useless or just plain terrible.

And there are a lot of nasties that sprout up in the yard. Not to mention in woods, fields, ditches and more.

That's where a book like Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities, by Amy Stewart, comes in handy.

It's not a guide in the sense that you'd want to lug it around on a camping trip and use it to identify whether those berries are poisonous or not. (Really, if you don't know what it is, and aren't 100 percent certain, don't mess with it!) Rather, it's a tossed salad of history, folklore and science, peppered with beautiful etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs and deliciously macabre illustrations by Jonathon Rosen. It's printed on beautiful, aged looking paper, to boot, so it has a lovely, antiquated look. Stewart also includes some end notes to steer you to poison control, tell you where there are some poison gardens to explore, and adds four-page bibliography of resources on poisonous plants.

The entries on the plants are short but information packed. For instance, Ergot, a common fungus that can plague rye and contaminate bread, is offered as a potential explanation of the hysteria that led to the Salem witch trials. Anyone who ingested the tainted grains was susceptible to convulsions, crazy talk and painful skin conditions, just like the accused experienced.

Another fascinating entry concerns common foods gone deadly. Plain old corn could even be dangerous. If it wasn't prepared correctly and corn constituted a large part of someone's diet, he or she could be afflicted with Pellagra, a severe niacin deficiency. The entry on corn/Pellagra even has an explanation of vampirism in connection to the illness. Pellagra sufferers' skin can become so senstive that it blisters in sunlight. Their sleep cycles are a mess, so they stay up all night. They grow pale and ghastly in appearance. And their appetites are wrecked from the illness. The afflicted took on a pale, ghastly appearance, and no doubt scared people who saw those symptoms manifest.

There are plenty more fascinating examples in Stewart's book. She discusses well-known plants (Poison Hemlock, Deadly Nightshade and more) and lesser known ones as well (Suicide Tree, for example). She also devotes some pages to narcotics and intoxicants, mushrooms and more.

It's a wickedly fun and informative read for gardeners, history buffs and the just plain curious.

For more on Stewart and the book, visit www.wickedplants.com