WICKED PLANTS by Amy Stewart
Just finished this quick, entertaining read. I recommend this for any plant nerd out there looking for some cocktail-party trivia to impress your gardener friends. While after reading it your takeaway may be "huh, just about everything can be deadly if you ingest enough of it," the real message is what we as humans usually deem the separate realms of the chemical and natural worlds are really one in the same.
Particularly fun factoids include:
All parts of your Easter Lily are toxic to cats.
Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac are not an ivy, oak, nor sumac, respectively. And none of them are actually poisonous.
You never see a Cashew in it's shell at the grocery because the Cashew is in the same family as Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac, and its shell has a similar irritating oil that causes a nasty rash if any part of you comes in contact with it.
You could die from a diet consisting of only corn (I'm not kidding).
Also, for great photos of some of the plants featured in the book, check out this site:
'Wicked Plants' at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden
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