Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart (19 Feb. 2020)

copyright:  2009

Intro:

  • A man in 1844 had a walled garden of poisonous plants
  •  do most gardeners approach their gardens kindly?
  •   will brew medicinal tea from bark & berries
  • 68847 people are poisoned by plants
  • shrubs leading to paralysis
  • nature has power in plants
  • need be attentive towards plant
    • they can nourish
    • even heal
  • tobacco is the most wicked weed
  • algae escape  Jacques Cousteau’s aquarium
  • smell of the corpse flowr
  • plant devouring mice?
  • will list the “evil” plants
  • gives poison centers number (800) -222-1222
  • don’t experiment with unfamiliar plants

Deadly Plants

  1. Aconitum had killed 2 priest in 1856 (it’s mistaken as an eatable herb
    1. spikes of blue flowers
    2.   called monkshood
    3. all part of plant is toxic
    4.   wear gloves
    5. the poison is a alkaloid called aconitine
    6. paralyzes the nerves, lowers blood pressure, and usually stops the heart
    7. could cause skin iratations
    8. or wolf Shane
    9. big in Harry Potter
  2. Arrow Poisons
    1.  From South Africa
    2. causes paralysis, lungs stop working, then the heart
    3.  no signs of agony
      1. CURARE (wide variety of arrow poisons)
      2. Strychnine Vine (South America, again causes paralysis
      3. Kombre (Africa vine, cardiac glycoside that works on heart) Toothbrush issues
      4. Upas Tree;  mulberry family, native to China, back of leaves produce toxic sap.
      5. poison arrow plants, puncturing vine seeds
  3. Ayahuasca Vine – Illegal
    1. using the bark
    2. contains DMT a Schedule I controlled substance
    3. in antidepressants + inhibitor
    4. this UDV can be used for religious practices
  4. betel nut:  Intoxation
    1. raises to 30 tall
    2. addictive stimulant
    3. 4 hundred million peope use it
    4. goes back to 5000-7000 BC
    5. it’s like coca
    6. uses piper betele
    7. has bitter pepper taste
    8. enjoyed in India
    9. similar to nicotine
  5. Castor Bean
    1. produces hemorrhages in organs of body
    2. makes ricin
    3. can be 10 feet tall
    4. sometimes its killed by winter frost
    5. a spoonful is a good laxative
    6. sooth sore muscles and inflamation
  6. Ordeal Poisons West African bean
    1. vomit – innocent
    2.  if he died – guilty
    3. evacuate through bowels – guilty
      1. Calabar Bean
        1.  poison of choice
        2. can be fifty feet tall
        3. works as a nerve gas
        4. talk of London in 1860
      2. Tanghin Poison – /nut
        1. suicide tree
        2. smoke from burning wood could be toxic
      3. Sassy Bark (casca)
        1. in Congo
        2. redish brown bark
      4. Strychnine Tree
        1. causes convulsions
        2. asphyxiations
      5. Upas Tree
        1. in Indoneesia
        2. prisoner myth
    4. Coca
      1. Sigmund Freud worked with Coco in 1895
      2. found to be used as early as 3000BC
      3. it was a devilish plant said the catholics
      4. was used to pay off work in gold and silver mines
      5. coka-cola had trace amounts of cocaine (from leaves)
      6. coco leaves are a mild stimulant
      7. the leaves are nutricious
      8. it’s an Andean crop (dates back thousands of years)
    5. Coyotille causes paralysis in berry form
      1. thrives between Texas and New Mexico
      2. can reach the size of 20 feet (like a small tree)
    6. Houseplants