Deadly plantsBy Adam Schneider

Castor Bean/Season Just one tiny castor bean is

enough to kill an adult within a few minutes. But castor oil is made safe with the removable of the lethal compound known as ricin. This plant is mainly grown in California. Castor bean plant grows as an annual that can get 8-15 ft tall in a single growing season. They tend to grow straight up at first, developing branches only later in the season.

Castor BeanLocation

The castor bean was originally native to northeastern Africa and the Middle East. It has escaped cultivation and become naturalized as a weed almost everywhere in the world that has a tropical or subtropical climate. Castor bean also grows wild on rocky hillsides, in waste places, along road shoulders, and at the edges of cultivated lands.

Rosary Pea The pea may sound sweet and rosary

but it’s downright nasty, it’s actually one of the most dangerous plants on earth. Its seeds contain a particular lectin known as abrin; if chewed and swallowed, death will follow shortly. The seeds are easily identified with their distinctive bright red jacket and single black dot (like a lady bug). Abrin, which does its damage by inactivating ribosomes, is one of the most fatal toxins on earth. If you thought you could get away with a quick death your wrong it starts out with the bizarre hyper excitability, edema, renal tubular degeneration, bladder and retinal hemorrhage, widespread internal lesions, vomiting, fever, nausea, drooling and G.I. dysfunction, then finally fatally convulsive seizures. What a way to die.

Rosary Pea

Location Rosary pea has been widely used in Florida

as an ornamental plant for many years. The native range of rosary pea is India and parts of Asia, where this plant is used for various purposes.

Bushmans Poison Bushman’s poison has

famously been used by the Khoisan of South Africa to poison the tips of their arrows. Though the plant produces pleasantly scented flowers and a tasty plum-like berry, the milky sap can be fatal. The leaves, however, have medicinal properties.

Angels Trumpet Related to tomatoes and potatoes, the

angel’s trumpet is a highly effective hallucinogen, but should not be consumed for recreational purposes as it can also be lethal. According to Wikipedia: “The active ingredients are atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine which are classified as deliriants, or anticholinergics. Due to the elevated risk of overdose in uninformed users, many hospitalizations, and some deaths are reported from recreational use.” This common plant also goes by many other names, including jimson weed, stink weed, loco weed, and devil’s snare. One 18-year-old who was house-sitting alone for his uncle recounts how he decided to prepare some angel’s trumpet tea in curiosity and almost died (a friend burst in on him convulsing on the bathroom floor and the authorities assumed he was on an acid trip). This plant is native to south America.

Water Hemlock The poison hemlock famously

drunk by Socrates is deadly, but the water hemlock is just as fatal. According to the USDA, water hemlock or poison parsnip is “the most violently toxic plant in North America”. The flowers and stems are safe, but the stalky roots contain chambers that are full of a deadly sap containing the convulsant cicutoxin. Grand mal seizures are followed by a quick death if even a tiny amount is consumed.

English Yew The English Yew is one of the deadliest

trees on the planet. The evergreen has a majestic and lush appearance and is fairly common in forests of Europe. The yew is considered by scientists to be an odd and primitive conifer along with the monkey puzzle tree of Chile and Gingko biloba tree of Asia. The yew has a rather sad history. All parts - save for the flesh of the berries - are extremely poisonous. Because the toxin causes convulsions and paralysis, it was once used as an abortifacient. Apothecaries would dry and powder the leaves and stems and give desperate women minute amounts in the days before birth control was available. Unfortunately, death would often result. This plant is no longer used for any medical perpeses.

Snakeroot Snakeroot is most dangerous for

livestock such as cattle and sheep. When cows consume the attractive fluffy white blooms and stems of the snakeroot, their milk and bones become saturated with the toxin tremetol and humans who consume these contaminated animal products will develop milk sickness (tremetol poisoning). In fact, milk sickness is what killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks.

Strychnine tree Queen Cleopatra famously

forced servants to commit suicide by means of a strychnine tree’s fruit seeds, which contain lethal levels of strychnine and brucine, in order to determine if it would be the best means for her own suicide. Upon seeing their agony (which included painful vomiting, facial contortions and convulsions) she opted for the apparently less horrific choice of the asp. This plant is native to southeast Asia.

Moonseed A plant with often fatal

effects. The seeds of this Eastern North American drupe (stone fruit) are extremely toxic to humans, although birds can eat them. Moonseeds first cause paralysis but are fatal in larger doses and/or if treatment is not sought immediately.

Daphne This plant, also called the

spurge laurel, is a favorite ornamental shrub in Europe. This drupe-producing evergreen with waxy, attractive foliage and gorgeously fragrant blooms is also highly toxic. Consumption of the leaves or red or yellow fruits will first cause nausea and violent vomiting, followed by internal bleeding, coma and death. The Daphne plant is rich in the toxin mezerein. This plant is native to Britain.

Monkshood Another unassuming plant - until you

learn that the nickname for monkshood is actually “WOLFSBANE”. That’s owing to its once common use by farmers as a very effective wolf extermination tool. The monkshood has the distinction of evidently being the bane of many creatures: its nicknames include womensbane and leopard’s bane, though it is also known as blue rocket and devil’s helmet. It is technically part of the aconitum genus, of which there are more than 250 species. The wolfsbane used to be a popular werewolf detection tool, by the way. This is also what some people take who have lycanthropy, which in medical terms that means people who think there “werewolves.” This drug was used long ago to make people commit horrendous murders.

Monkshood

Location

This plant typically grows in colder regions of the northern hemisphere and has been seen all within a few meters of the open north Atlantic.

Equipment and Clothing Just make sure you have gloves and a

protective container to store these plants in.

Sources http://www.floridata.com/ref/R/rici_com.cfm http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/top

10_poisonous_plants-1.html http://webecoist.com/2008/09/16/16-most-un

assuming-yet-lethal-killer-plants/ http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/node/23

License No license is needed for these plants that I

now of.

Pros You get to learn about all the deadly plants.

Cons Your might some how get these poisons in

your body.

The HUNT! Check online for areas that are most

populated with these plants. When you get there just look around there

not going to run away.

Habitat Depends on the plant.

Fitness

You need to be able to walk for long distance in different climates and have a great deal of patience.

What would this be like? You could get up early or wait until night it

really doesn’t matter because there not moving. Once you get to the spot where they are said to be look around until you find the plant your looking for then depending on which plant it is, remove it with the proper care.

Education The only thing you need to know is what

part of the plant is poisonous and what parts aren’t.

Interview More than 12,000 children each year are

treated for ingesting exotic-looking toxic plants they find in the house or yard. There are 700 known poisonous plants in the United States and dozens of these can be found around the house.

By Rita Robinson