Wicked Plants

April 15, 2009
They may look sweet and innocent, but anyone who has ever broken out in a rash after picking a hyacinth blossom or burst into violent sneezing after sniffing a chrysanthemum knows that often the most beautiful flowers can pack the nastiest punch. This comes as no secret to mystery writers, who have long taken advantage of the nefarious properties of common garden plants to create the devices by which a deadly dose of poison is administered to an unsuspecting victim. But, as Stewart so entertainingly points out, such fiction is based on pure fact. There are plants that can kill with a drop of nectar, paralyze with the brush of a petal. From bucolic woodland streams choked by invasive purple loosestrife to languid southern fields overrun by kudzu, some plants are just more trouble than theyre worth. Culling legend and citing science, Stewarts fact-filled, AZ compendium of natures worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)