Wicked Plants

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

By: Amy Stewart

Narrated by: Coleen Marlo

Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly. 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. Amy Stewart, best-selling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over 200 of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.

Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard. Drawing on history, medicine, science, and legend, this compendium of bloodcurdling botany will entertain, enlighten, and alarm even the most intrepid gardeners and nature lovers.

©2009 Amy Stewart (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Culling legend and citing science, Stewart's fact-filled, A-Z compendium of nature's worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants." ( Booklist)

Better as a print book.

This is a book I would want to use for a reference. It doesn’t make for a good audio book. I want an index for looking up specific plants. Having listened to the book definitely has made me cautious about the whole outdoors. Something wicked this way comes, and it is out to get you. I am taking longer looks at anything green now as a possible hazard. Avoid the tropics in particular and get your food from the grocery store. The book isn’t just about poisonous plants though. It includes all kinds of plants that create problems for both man and beast. If you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it, don’t smell it, and definitely don’t taste it. That’s my motto from now on.

Reads like an encyclopedia of wicked plants

I was expecting this book to be more anecdotal, but it sounds more like a Wikipedia page, reading off the names, effects, and related species of certain deleterious plant life. Further more, the narrator reads off the headings, which are more or less the same for each entry, which can be somewhat distracting. Otherwise, an informative book. I was not aware of the wide scope of ways in which plants have it out for us.

Best Read Encyclopedia

You are basically buying an encyclopedia of poisons. But its an excellently narrated encyclopedia with terrific little stories out of history. I never knew how many deadly plants surrounded me each day. The book seems to describe a science fiction world in a far off alien universe. But no, its right here.

I knew there was a good reason my parents made me wash my hands after playing outside... i always thought it was to protect from germs, but let me tell you germs got nothing on some of these plants; and they are right outside!

Be warned, if your enemies are found dead from common plant poisonings soon after you read this the feds are sure to look at your audible list of recent books and you will be caught.

Not Well Suited for Audio

I guess I should have paid more attention to the description of the book before I listened to it on audio, particularly where it says: "Menacing botanical illustrations and splendidly ghastly drawings create a fascinating portrait of the evildoers that may be lurking in your own backyard." It would have been more interesting in print format; the audio version feels like I'm listening to someone reading a list with a few fun facts thrown in.

We are not even safe inside!

It is evidently clear that nature is intent on killing us and that is that. Plants are the likely culprit and this book tells you who it might be. This terrifying book lists one thing after another that will kill, injure or poison you, it is a scary gallop through a long list of terror ... and I loved every little bit of it. Glorious plants of all sorts are listed herein and the ways they want to hurt you is detailed in beautiful detail. It is so very interesting and reading this may also one day save your life! As a result of reading this fabulous book, I have more respect for my plants and have moved my poisonous houseplants out of reach of my naughty Chihuahua, thankfully before anything bad happened. I worry that listening to this book audibly might make people you live with feel uncomfortable, and listening to such terrible information does feel a little devious, but oh wow is it ever interesting stuff, especially for a plant nerd such as myself.

I noticed the reader changed the way she pronounced plant family names along the way which is good because she ended up saying it correctly - although the words end with '-ceae' and that looks like it should sound complicated, the correct way to say it is 'ee-ee'. I know this from asking a latin-fluent eminent biologist.

Thoroughly enjoyed this as a fun commuting listen.

What made the experience of listening to Wicked Plants the most enjoyable?

Just a good fun listen on the commute. Wasnt looking for an encyclopedic textbook with pictures for reference and field work.

Interesting book. Might be better in physical form

What did you love best about Wicked Plants?

While this book doesn’t cover anything in depth, it sure is wide. So many plants and their often undesirable characteristics are covered.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Anything that grows far away from me.

Have you listened to any of Coleen Marlo’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

N/A

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I think it’s best to take this book section by section to best retain the interesting tid bits.

Any additional comments?

Well narrated book about fascinating material. It may be better suited in physical form as subjects, while thorough enough, are covered quickly and rapid fire making it hard to retain much of the information. Having pictures for the plants would also be a huge improvement.

Who knew plants were so interesting?

I bought this as a daily deal so it was an expensive and I was surprised at how interesting the book was for me.

This is a book that should be hard copy

I really was wishing I had a hard copy with photos instead of audible! Regret buying as now I feel like I need to buy hard copy also.

Excllent!!!

Highly entertaining listen giving you a look into the world of plants and how they have been used in the past and common day