Wicked Plants

by Amy Stewart

  One recent case involved a six-year-old girl who fell out of a wading pool in her backyard. Her parents noticed the dilated pupils and rushed her to the hospital. The doctors asked the parents if the child had been exposed to any poisonous plants, and the parents said no. Later, after a batch of medical tests came back negative, the girl remembered that she had grabbed the plant as she fell out of the pool.

  The alkaloids in brugmansia and datura can easily be absorbed through the skin or inadvertently rubbed into the eyes, bringing on these temporary but terrifying vision problems.

  INTOXICATING

  Mandrake

  MANDRAGORA OFFICINARUM

  Go and catch a falling star

  Get with child a mandrake root

  Tell me where all past years are,

  Or who cleft the devil’s foot . . .

  —John Donne

  Mandrake may not be the worst thug in the nightshade family, but it certainly has the most fearsome reputation. Aboveground, it is an unimposing little plant with a foot-tall rosette of leaves, pale green flowers, and mildly poisonous fruits that resemble small, unripe tomatoes. But the source of the mandrake’s power lies underground.

  FAMILY:

  Solanaceae

  HABITAT:

  Fields; open, sunny areas

  NATIVE TO:

  Europe

  COMMON NAMES:

  Satan’s apple, mandragora

  Its long, pointed root can grow three to four feet long and is forked like a carrot grown in rocky soil. Members of ancient civilizations thought that the bifurcated, hairy root looked like a devilish little person, sometimes male, sometimes female. The Romans believed mandrake could cure demonic possession, and the Greeks, thinking it resembled a male sexual organ, used it in love potions. It was also widely believed that the mandrake shrieked when it was pulled from the ground—so loudly that its screams would kill anyone who heard it.

  Flavius Josephus, a first-century AD Jewish historian, described one method for surviving the mandrake’s horrible screams. A dog would be tied to the base of the plant with a rope and the owner would retreat to a safe distance. When the dog ran away, it would pull the root up. Even if the screams killed the dog, a person could still pick up the root and use it.

  The friar gave Juliet a mandrake-laced sleeping potion so that she would look “like death when he shuts up the day of life.”

  Mandrake was slipped into wine to make a powerful sedative useful for playing nasty tricks on enemies. In a battle over the northern Africa city of Carthage around 200 BC, the general Hannibal waged an early form of chemical warfare by retreating from the city and leaving a feast behind, complete with mandragora, a drugged wine made from the mandrake. The African warriors drank and slept, only to be ambushed and killed when Hannibal’s troops returned.

  William Shakespeare, perhaps thinking of this event, created a role for the poison in Rorneo and Juliet. The friar gives Juliet a mandrake-laced sleeping potion and makes this grim promise:

  The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade

  To paly ashes, thy eyes’ windows fall

  Like death when he shuts up the day of life

  Mandrake works its soporific magic through many of the same alkaloids as its deadly nightshade cousins. Atropine, hyoscamine, and scopolamine are all present in the plant and are capable of slowing down the nervous system and inducing a coma.

  Recently, an elderly Italian couple arrived at an emergency room, babbling incoherently and hallucinating a few hours after eating the fruit. It took a powerful antidote (ironically, the doctor administered physostigmine, which is derived from the even more toxic Calabar bean), to restore a regular heartbeat and return them to consciousness.

  Meet the Relatives The notorious nightshade family includes peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes, along with deadly nightshade and belladonna.

  ILLEGAL

  Marijuana

  CANNABIS SATIVA

  Cannabis has been used by humans for at least five thousand years and regulated or banned for the last seventy. Hemp fibers (from varieties of cannabis that contain very little THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, and are therefore useless as a drug) have been found in cave dwelling excavations throughout Asia. The Roman physician Dioscorides mentioned the plant’s medicinal properties in his medical guide De materia medica in AD 70. Its use spread to India, throughout Europe, and eventually to the New World, where early settlers grew it as an economically useful fiber crop. Early drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. It was used in early patent medications, and even sold in Manhattan as a candy from about 1864 through 1900. “Arabian Gunje of Enchantment,” the candy was called. “A most pleasurable and harmless stimulant.”

  FAMILY:

  Cannabaceae

  HABITAT:

  Sunny, warm, open areas like meadows and fields

  NATIVE TO:

  Asia

  COMMON NAMES:

  Pot, ganja, Mary Jane, bud, weed, grass

  This weedy, annual plant grows to ten or fifteen feet tall and produces a sticky, intoxicating resin that is also used to produce hashish. All parts of the plant contain THC, the psychoactive compound that brings on a feeling of mild euphoria, relaxation, and the sense that time is passing slowly. Paranoia and anxiety are sometimes experienced at higher doses, but most effects subside within a few hours. Cannabis is not considered to be a lethal plant except to the extent that it may invite automobile accidents, robberies, and electrical fires from indoor grow operations.

  The taxonomy of cannabis is still under debate by botanists. Some argue that Cannabis sativa, C. indica, and C. ruderalis are three separate species, while others believe that C. sativa is the only species in the genus, which may have many different strains. Any of these strains or species may be called hemp or marijuana. In addition to the use of hemp fiber for clothing and paper, hemp has also been investigated as a possible biofuel source, and the seeds are used as a food ingredient because they contain protein, healthy fatty acids, and vitamins.

  Marijuana was sold in Manhattan as a candy from about 1864 through 1900. “Arabian Gunje of Enchantment,” the candy was called.

  Some historians suggest that the drive to outlaw cannabis in the early twentieth century came out of the culture wars. Recreational marijuana use was popular among jazz musicians, artists, writers, and other ne’er-do-wells. Its use was regulated, but not banned, by the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. The beginning of the Beat movement may have been the impetus for finally getting this evil weed out of the hands of America’s young people. It was outlawed in 1951 as part of the Boggs Act.

  Today marijuana use is banned or strictly regulated in most countries throughout the world. In spite of that, surveys by the U.S. Department of Health show that 97 million people age twelve and over, or roughly a third of Americans, have used marijuana in their lifetime. Thirty-five million, more than 10 percent of the population, have used it in the last year. The United Nations estimates that nearly 4 percent of the world’s population, or 160 million people, consume the drug every year.

  Illegal cannabis production is estimated to take up over a half-million acres worldwide and yield forty-two thousand metric tons, making cannabis a roughly $400 billion crop worldwide. U.S. production has been estimated at $35 billion, while the value of the nation’s corn crop is $22.6 billion and that of another wicked plant, tobacco, is only $1 billion. In spite of its value as a cash crop, it’s also still a weed. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reported that in 2005 law enforcement agencies eradicated 4.2 million cultivated plants and over 218 million “ditchweed” plants, which the agency describes as marijuana plants growing wild that are not typically harvested. (Ditchweed is usually a hemp variety left over from the days of legal hemp cultivation.) That means that 98 percent of the United States’ eradication efforts are directed at weeds.

  Meet the Relatives Hops (Humulus lupulus), used to flavor beer, are in the same family as cannabis. They have no known in
toxicating qualities, although the buds may act as a mild sedative. The hackberry (Celtis spp.) is a related genus of North American ornamental trees.

  DEADLY

  Oleander

  NERIUM OLEANDER

  In AD 77 Pliny the Elder described the oleander as “an evergreen, bearing a strong resemblance to the rose-tree, and throwing out numerous branches from the stem; to beasts of burden, goats, and sheep it is poisonous, but for man it is an antidote against the venom of serpents.”

  FAMILY:

  Apocynaceae

  HABITAT:

  Tropical, subtropical, and ternperate climates, usually in dry, sunny locations and dry streambeds

  NATIVE TO:

  Mediterranean areas

  COMMON NAMES:

  Rose laurel, be-still tree

  Pliny may have been the most influential botanist of his time, but he was wrong about the oleander. The only relief it would provide a snakebite victim would be a swift and merciful death. This highly toxic shrub is popular in warm climates around the world for its red, pink, yellow, or white blossoms. Because it is so widespread, it has been implicated in a surprising number of murders and accidental deaths over the years. One popular legend is that campers have died after grilling meat over the campfire on skewers made from oleander twigs. This tale is unconfirmed, but the poisons in the sap and bark of oleander could easily contaminate food.

  Oleander contains oleandrin, a cardiac glycoside that brings on nausea and vomiting, severe weakness, irregular pulse, and a decreased heart rate that leads quickly to death. It is also toxic to animals: in spite of the leaves’ bitter taste, a cat or dog might be tempted to nibble them. Inhaling the smoke from burning oleander wood can be highly irritating, and even honey made from the plant’s nectar can be poisonous. A study of compost made from oleander showed that oleandrin remains in the compost at detectable levels for three hundred days but that vegetables grown in the compost don’t absorb the toxins.

  A woman in Southern California tried to collect on her husband’s life insurance by putting oleander leaves in his food.

  Children are particularly at risk because it takes only a few leaves to kill them. In 2000 two toddlers in Southern California were found dead in their cribs after chewing on the leaves. Just a few months later, a woman in Southern California tried to collect on her husband’s life insurance by putting the leaves in his food. He went to the hospital with severe gastrointestinal problems, but he survived. As he was recuperating, his wife finished the job by offering him Gatorade laced with antifreeze. She is now one of fifteen women on California’s death row, and the only one who attempted murder with a plant.

  Oleander-related suicide attempts turn up regularly in medical literature; particularly among nursing-home patients, probably because the plant is popular in landscapes and is well known among elderly people as a poisonous plant. In Sri Lanka a related plant called the yellow oleander (Thevetia peruviana) has become the most common method of suicide, particularly among women. Recent studies of the problem sampled over nineteen hundred hospital patients who had poisoned themselves with yellow oleander seeds. Although only about 5 percent of the patients died, the elderly were particularly successful. This may have been due to their frailty, or to their determination, as they tended to ingest more seeds than younger people.

  Unfortunately, oleander also has a reputation as a medicinal plant, leading people suffering from certain kinds of cancer or heart problems to attempt an oleander soup or tea from recipes they find online. This practice is very dangerous. Although there have been attempts to market an extract called Anvirzel in the United States, it has not received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

  Meet the Relatives Other flowering trees and shrubs in the family include the fragrant plumeria; the highly toxic cerbera; the periwinkle; and yellow oleander, Thevetia peruviana.

  DANGEROUS

  FORBIDDEN GARDEN

  Dangerous plants don’t just lurk in Amazon rain forests or tropical jungles. They may be widely available at your local garden center but not labeled as poisonous. When in doubt, ask—and remind children not to nibble anything they haven’t already seen at the dinner table. Look no farther than your own backyard for these poisonous beauties:

  AZALEA AND RHODODENDRO

  Rhododendron SPP.

  A popular group of shrubs containing over eight hundred species and thousands of varieties. The poison grayanotoxin can be found in the leaves, flowers, nectar, and pollen. Eating any part of the plant can cause heart problems, vomiting, dizziness, and extreme weakness. Honey made from rhododendrons can be toxic, too. Pliny the Elder wondered why Nature would allow the creation of toxic honey and wrote around AD 77, “What, in fact, can have been her motive, except to render mankind a little more cautious and somewhat less greedy?”

  BLACK LOCUST

  Robina psuedoacacia

  This North American native tree produces clusters of wisteria-like pink, lilac, or cream-colored flowers, but its branches are covered with sharp thorns and all parts of the plant except the flowers are toxic. The toxin, called robin, is similar to ricin and abrin (produced by castor beans and rosary peas, respectively), and although robin is milder, it can cause a weak pulse, stomach upset, headache, and coldness of the extremities. The bark is especially toxic in fall.

  COLCHICUM

  Colchicum spp.

  These flowering plants are sometimes called autumn crocus or meadow saffron, but they are neither a true crocus nor the plant from which the spice saffron is derived. The corms produce lovely pink or white flowers in the fall, but all parts of the plant are toxic. They get their poison from the alkaloid colchicine, which causes burning, fever, vomiting, and kidney failure. Colchicum has been used since ancient times as a treatment for gout and was the active ingredient for a common naturopathic medication until a rash of deaths in Oregon in 2007 led to an FDA recall of the drug.

  DAPHNE

  Daphne spp.

  Shrubs popular for the tiny clusters of intensely fragrant flowers in winter and early spring when little else is in bloom. Just one or two sprigs will perfume a room. The sap can be irritating to the skin, and all parts of the plant are poisonous. Just a few of the brightly colored berries could kill a child; those who survive may suffer from irritation of the throat, internal bleeding, weakness, and vomiting.

  FOXGLOVE

  Digitalis spp.

  Low-growing biennials and perennials with breathtaking spires of trumpet-shaped flowers in shades of white, lavender, pink, and yellow. All parts of the plant can irritate the skin and cause severe stomach upset, delirium, tremors, convulsions, headaches, and fatal heart problems if ingested. The plant produces the cardiac glycoside digoxin, which is used to prepare the heart drug digitalis.

  HELLEBORE, LENTEN ROSE, OR CHRISTMAS ROSE

  Helleborus spp.

  This low-growing perennial produces dramatic, dark green foliage and beautiful five-petaled blossoms in shades of pale green, white, pink, red, and maroon that appear in winter and early spring. All parts of the plant are poisonous. The sap is irritating to the skin, and symptoms of ingestion include burning of the mouth, vomiting, dizziness, nervous-system depression, and convulsions. The plant was once popular as a medicine; one theory about the death of Alexander the Great was that he had been given a medicinal dose of hellebore. The First Sacred War (595–585 BC) is believed by some historians to have been won after a Greek military alliance poisoned the water supply of the city of Kirrha with hellebore. This would have been one of the first instances of chemical warfare in recorded history.

  HYDRANGEA

  Hydrangea spp.

  A beloved garden shrub prized for its enormous clusters of blue, pink, green, or white flowers, hydrangea contains low levels of cyanide. Although poisonings are rare, the flowers are used as a cake topper, which could lead people to believe it is edible. Symptoms include vomiting, headache, and muscle weakness.

  LANTANA

  La
ntana spp.

  A popular, low-growing evergreen perennial that attracts butterflies and blooms all summer long in shades of red, orange, and purple. The berries contain the highest level of toxins while they are still green. If ingested, the berries can cause visual problems, weakness, vomiting, heart problems, and death.

  LOBELIA

  Lobelia spp.

  The Lobelia genus contains a number of beloved garden plants, including the compact, brilliant blue L. erinus, a bedding annual that spills out of containers; the spiky bright red L. cardinalis, which thrives in marshes; and the tropical L. tupa, often called devil’s tobacco. One species, L. inflate, or Indian tobacco, has also earned the names pokeweed and vomitwort. The poisons in lobelia, called lobelamine and lobeline, are similar to nicotine and can cause heart problems, vomiting, tremors, and paralysis if ingested.

  YELLOW JESSAMINE OR CAROLINA JESSAMINE

  Gelsemium sempervirens

  An evergreen vine native to the American Southwest. The bright yellow, trumpet-shaped, fragrant flowers make it a popular climber and groundcover, and it has been adopted as the state flower of South Carolina. All parts of the plant are poisonous. Children have died from mistaking the plant for honeysuckle and sucking the nectar out of the flowers. Both pollen and nectar can be toxic to bees who visit the plant too frequently when no other flowers are available.