Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
Posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 4:41 am
- ISBN13: 9781565126831
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. In Wicked Plants, Stewart takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. It’s an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend. You’ll learn which plants to avoid (like exploding shrubs), which plants make themselves exceedingly unwelcome (like the vine that ate the South), and which ones have been killing for centuries (like the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother).
Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, alarm, and enlighten even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.
The very title “Wicked Plants” implies the impossible: That plants have a desire to do harm to people. One may as well write a book about wicked shovels (which can inflict serious, even lethal injury), wicked pencils (which injure thousands of schoolchildren every year), and wicked cheese (in the 80s, a man in France killed his wife with a block of cheese). These examples may sound ridiculous, but they are no more ridiculous than the bulk of this book.
Yes, many plants are poisonous. Surprise!!!! Some are armed with stingers or thorns, and a few are even hallucinogenic. If you are interested in these fascinating topics, there are many much better places to get information than this tiny, poorly-researched volume that seeks to exaggerate, sensationalize, and anthropomorphize the plants it discusses.
I read this book in about an hour and learned very little. It is full of misinformation. For example, the pictures of Eupatorium are actually of water hemlock. That makes me wonder if the publisher actually thought of having a BOTANIST read it over, or of fact checking. But then again, I doubt that any botanist would want to be associated with such a frivolous project.
I give it two stars because it least it is fairly well written and pleasant to read, if you can get past the ridiculous notion that plants can commit atrocities.
Rating: 2 / 5
Amy Stewart’s “Wicked Plants” is a breezy light read which skims over the topic of toxic plants. This book is not organized by plant taxonomy or chemistry of the toxins or even by symptoms, but alphabetically by the American common names of the toxic plants. Much of the print is brown type on tan paper making it difficult to read. The drawings by Jonathon Rosen are bizarre cartoons. The etchings by Briony Morrow-Cribbs are devoid of color and context making them of little use for plant identification. There is no illustration of poison ivy, oak or sumac and the book has no index. The text is an easy read. It is like a collection of magazine articles with text boxes repeating pithy phrases, however, Stewart is accurate in her descriptions and does an admirable job of not sensationalizing.
Rating: 2 / 5
this was a very interesting book. i didn’t know many of the things in it, plus i really liked the format. it was easy to read and informative.
Rating: 5 / 5
It’s an interesting read. The grass-green cover, and brown print-on-tan paper are earth-appropriate. The drawings are great. If only they were in color! The author does include a bibliography of identification guide books, and a website for photos and pictures…but it would have been really helpful if the illustrations had been in color..included with the stories of the plants.
Rating: 3 / 5
Beautiful writing, beautiful drawings. Couldn’t read through in one sitting – of couse, not a novel like I was expecting, mainly a listing of plants.
Rating: 4 / 5