Deadly Plants

A favorite topic of mine.

Much like Agatha Christie, I love a good a poison. One of the things I find most interesting about plants is their ability to generate a wide range of pretty useful chemicals. From medicines to spices, fragrances, and industrial ingredients, humans take advantage of the fact that plants are nature’s chemical factories.

But, there is a dark side, there is always a dark side. One of the main reasons plants produce chemicals is for defense, so it’s no surprise that some of the most deadly substances on earth come from plants.

Often touted as the most poisonous tree on Earth, the Manchineel Tree (Hippomane mancinella), native to South America, the Caribbean, and Florida bears fruit and sap so toxic, that signs are often posted warning people against even standing under the tree during rain storms.

Manchineel Warnings

The Manchineel Tree is part of a very toxic family known as the Euphorbiaceae, all of which are toxic to some degree. One of the more famous members of this family is a particular nuisance to curious kids during the holidays.

Poinsettia

The genus Aconitum, also known as monkshood or wolf’s bane contains 250 species, most of which are deadly. The toxin aconitine is a neurotoxin and a cardiotoxin that can cause death from respiratory paralysis or heart failure. Aconite is perhaps most famously known as one of the substances witches allegedly rubbed on their broomsticks to make them fly. That would certainly be an interesting trip.

Aconite Species

The castor bean plant embodies one of those dichotomies I find so fascinating in nature. Castor oil is an incredibly useful substance: it is used in biofuel, as a cocoa butter substitute, in soap, ink, laxatives, and in plastics. It has also been used as a wound treatment in China for centuries. Its seeds, however, contain the substance ricin. Ricin has been used in several assassination attempts and attempted terrorist plots. Criminals seem to love sprinkling it on their hate mail. According to the CDC, one milligram can kill an adult.

Ricinus communis

Abrus precatorius, aka the rosary pea or jequirity bean, is found in most tropical areas of the world and is generally considered an invasive. A member of the pea family its bright red and black peas are popular in jewelry and rosaries around the tropics. The toxin in these peas, called abrin, is similar to ricin, and causes nausea, convulsions, liver failure, and eventually, after several days, death. The fatal dose of abrin, however, is 1/75th that of ricin. There are stories of people dying from pricking their fingers while making rosaries of the dried peas. In 2011, Britain’s Eden Project recalled bracelets made of the seeds when one of their horticulturalists realized what exactly they were selling.

Abrus precatorius

There are a lot more, deadly nightshade, water hemlock, devil’s trumpet, yew, oleander, I could go on for days. Did you know the leaves of the tomato plant are toxic? And there is one of my favorites, if only for its irony, the toxic and parasitic mistletoe. The world of plants is beautiful, deadly, and so very fascinating. I hope you enjoyed reading this, and always remember, if you don’t know what it is, don’t put it in your mouth… or burn it, or put it in jewelry…