Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

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.

• Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects
• The Drunken Botanist
• Plants That Kill: A Natural History of the World's Most Poisonous Plants
• The Big, Bad Book of Botany: The World's Most Fascinating Flora
• The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
• Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful
• The Wicked Plants Coloring Book
• Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History (Fifty Things That Changed the Course of History)
• Plants That Can Kill: 101 Toxic Species to Make You Think Twice
• Death in the Garden: Poisonous Plants and Their Use Throughout History