|  | Author: Amy Stewart
Creator: Briony Morrow-Cribbs
Publisher: Algonquin Books
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $11.00
as of 11/23/2009 18:35 CST details
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Seller: treebeardbooks
Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 810
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 223
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1565126831
Dewey Decimal Number: 581.65
EAN: 9781565126831
ASIN: 1565126831
Publication Date: May 21, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Fast and Professional Shipping (no shipping to: APO, AK, HI, PR as standard mail to these locations takes 4+ weeks).
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 29
 A Light Read August 3, 2009
Philip H. Evans
10 out of 24 found this review helpful
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.
 "Wicked plants" review. July 26, 2009
S. Kulangara (LA, CA)
This is a good book to have and refer to before buying a plant. It'll keep you from growing a poisonous plant/tree that has the potential to kill your child or pet, right in your back yard/garden! I have browsed thru it and found the book to be concise yet extremetly informative. It gets to the point about: it's botanical name, description, family origin/history, habitat, native to, and common names. Although the illustrations are pleasing, I sure wish it had actual color pictures of the plants. I personally don't care for the cover design, but the inside pages are well laid out. Overall I'd definitely recommend this book to all, especially gardeners, home owners, parents, school officials, plant nurseries etc.
"Wicked Plants" is awsome!! July 19, 2009
TashaD (Arkansas, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very informative. I bought extra copies for friends and family. Has historical and medical information on many plants I never thought would cause problems. TashaWicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities
 Danger in the grass July 18, 2009
Rae A. Francoeur
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you believe your home is your castle, fortified against a world of dangers, you might want to reconsider. Amy Stewart's new book, "Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities," gives us a delightful tour of the perils thriving right under our nose.
"Wicked Plants" is a nicely illustrated, upbeat examination of vegetation that can kill, addict, torment and torture. There's nothing benign about that philodendron wending its steady, picturesque way around your mantle. As for that undercooked kidney bean, eat five like it and you'll think you ate a peck of rotten clams. Nature knows no shame. Heart failure, paralysis, vomiting, psychosis, skin ulcers and other horrors, including death, can be induced from plants in your own backyard. Every mystery writer in search of the perfect murder should buy a copy of "Wicked Plants."
Amy Stewart's storytelling talents, combined with her subject matter, make her the Stephen King of gardening lore. About hemlock, she writes:
"The death that hemlock delivers is, from outward appearances, an easy one. Mr. Gow [his children accidentally made him a sandwich with poison hemlock greens] stumbled about drunkenly, his limbs gradually became paralyzed, and eventually the poison stopped his heart and lungs. The doctor attending the death reported that `the Intellect was perfectly clear until shortly before death.'"
While most gardeners pore over seed catalogs, anti-gardeners gather indisputable arguments for inertia from Stewart's book. In her chapter on offensive plants and social misfits, she points to the stench of the skunk cabbage, the wet dog scent of the stinking benjamin, the repugnant emissions of the rare corpse flower. Ingest a bit of slobber weed and prepare for the onslaught of a couple of pints of saliva. The betel nut, which 400 million people chew as a stimulant, produces a red saliva that stains the streets of countries where it grows. Plants aren't just a nuisance, they are deadly.
Instead of giving new parents another set of crib sheets for the newborn, consider this book. It doesn't hurt for parents to know that they were wrong about the poinsettia but in the dark about the potentially fatal effects of the bleeding heart and azaleas now in bloom. By the way, never nibble yew. Every part of it except the fetching red berries is poisonous. Called the "graveyard tree" in England, it does produce an extract used to make the cancer treatment drug Taxol.
You'll read about addictive and mind-altering plants and fungi, the invasive plants clogging our fields and waterways and a killer algae smothering ocean floors. These plants are wicked and indestructible. The hearty coca plant, for instance, produces three crops a year and the alkaloids in the leaves produce a natural pesticide. Stewart writes that Freud tried cocaine and reported that he felt "unbelievably well" as if "everything had been erased."
Stewart made a stop at the Peabody Essex Museum on Thursday and will be at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden on May 31. At the back of her book she lists a number of poison gardens, including gardens in Philadelphia and Ithaca that are associated with medical schools. She also tends her own poison garden at home in northern California.
Facts about plants will fascinate and freak out July 13, 2009
Christina Lockstein (Oconto Falls, WI USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart is a fascinating if slightly creepy look at poisonous and harmful plants, some that may be in your yard, house, or even in you rrefrigerator ! First of all, I have to say I love the feel of this book. Too many publishers have forgotten that part of the joy of reading is holding the volume in your hands. Plants is a small hardcover without dust jacket with engraving on the front cover giving it the feel of a late 19th century volume; it even has a ribbon bookmark! It has a charming look inside as well with wickedly humorous engravings drawn with a delicate hand. Most people know about the hazards of deadly nightshade and monkshood, but who knew that corn and red kidney beans could cause serious illness if not cooked/handled correctly? Not all plants are necessarily hazardous to humans, also included are kudzu, killer algae, as well as plants that will make readers' skin crawl. As my librarian said, creative minds would have a hard time imagining the strangeness of Mother Nature, like silly-string look-a-like parasite dodder. Whether the plants are exploding or oozing, some of them are downright weird. One small complaint: I've always heard that apple seeds and peach pits contain arsenic, but neither are addressed in this volume. This is a book I would love to own and keep on my shelf to refer to when buying new plants or just to read aloud some of the stories to freak out friends and family.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 29
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