Wicked Plants

The author of The Drunken Botanist “offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants” (Booklist).

American Horticultural Society Book Award Winner

Chosen One of the Best Gardening Books of the Year by the Washington Post and National Public Radio

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.

“Author Stewart presents an alphabetical compendium of hazardous plants . . . while incorporating pop culture, medicine, mythology, history, legalities, and botanical facts. The text is highly intriguing . . . Recommended to lovers of fascinating trivia, history, botany, and horticulture.” —Library Journal (audio review)