Naughty Plants

Haven’t blogged for a while as I had to hide the laptop from Daisy as she has now got a taste for blogging, or it could be she liked sitting on something warm. She does like a warm bottom and it has been decidedly cool lately with late season snowfalls here. In fact we have all had cold bottoms here!

Thought I would generate some heat in my fingers by typing about one of my favourite books “Wicked Plants” by Amy Stewart.

I love plants and I like taking images of beautiful flowers such as this gorgeous purple Anemone

But I’m also drawn to the dark side of plants (Daisy would be proud) and Wicked Plants is full of dangerous and diabolical examples. There are no colour pictures in the book, all the pages have a Da Vinci Code like sepia design background with plant illustrations in black pen. The usual suspects like Marijuana have their place in the Illegal plants chapter but it’s the innocuous ones like Morning Glory (Ipomea tricolour) that surprise. Did you know that its seeds if eaten in sufficiently large quantities launch you on an LSD like trip producing frightening hallucinations. I checked my local garden centre and they are on sale in there, no restrictions. If only they knew!

Rhubarb leaves cause gastro intestinal problems and in rare circumstances coma and death. Think about that when you are next drizzling custard over your Rhubarb crumble!

Finally, did you know there was such a thing as a Strychnine Tree (Strychnos nux-vomica)? I always thought Strychnine was produced in dark labs by Victorian murderers with Jekyll and Hyde tendencies. It actually comes from the seed of this fifty foot tree. And for good measure the bark of one of its relatives Strychnos toxifera can be boiled down to make poison for the tip of an arrow. All good stuff to know come the Apocalypse, which I predict should arrive on Budget Day next week.

Sláinte

Linda xx