by Amy Stewart
Bufotenine is listed as a Schedule I controlled substance by the DEA, but yopo seeds (or toads, for that matter) are not specifically identified as illegal. A few clinical studies have shown that people with schizophrenia and a few other mental disorders excrete bufotenine in their urine. Yopo is also rumored to contain dimethyltriptamine, or DMT, the active ingredient in ayahuasca, but tests show no traces of it in the seeds.
MORNING GLORY
Ipomoea tricolor
Seeds contain small quantities of lysergic acid amide, which may produce an LSD-like trip if eaten in large quantity. The seeds are popular among teenagers who either chew them or soak them in water to make tea. Recent news reports indicate that many owners of garden centers are unaware of the trend and had been selling the seed packets to teenagers in hopes that young people were starting to show an interest in gardening. Kids who consume the seeds have been hospitalized with dangerously high heart rates and frightening hallucinations.
DEADLY
Poison Hemlock
CONIUM MACULATUM
One day in 1845 a Scottish tailor named Duncan Gow ate a sandwich made with wild greens his children had collected for him. Within a few hours, he was dead. The children had made the fatal mistake of confusing the lacy foliage of parsley with that of poison hemlock. It was the last (and, one suspects, the only) lesson in botany the children ever got from their father, and one they would never forget.
FAMILY:
Apiaceae
MABITAT:
Fields and pastures throughout the Northern Hemisphere; prefers wet soils and coastal areas
NATIVE TO:
Europe
COMMON NAMES:
Spotted parsley, spotted cowbane, bad-man’s oatmeal, poison snakeweed, beaver poison
The death that hemlock delivers is, from outward appearances, an easy one. Mr. Gow stumbled about drunkenly, his limbs gradually became paralyzed, and eventually the poison stopped his heart and lungs. The doctor attending the death reported that “the Intellect was perfectly clear until shortly before death.”
Hemlock’s most famous victim was the Greek philosopher Socrates, who in 399 BC was convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens, among other offenses, and sentenced to death. His student Plato witnessed his death. When the time came, a guard brought Socrates a drink made from the poison, which he drank calmly. The condemned man walked around his cell until his legs felt heavy; then he lay down on his back. The guard pressed his feet and legs and asked Socrates if he had any feeling left in them; he did not. “And then he touched him,” Plato wrote, “and said that when it, the coldness, reaches his heart, he’ll be gone.” A short while later, Socrates grew quiet and still, and then he was dead.
Poison hemlock, a plant in the carrot family, is so toxic that it is known in Scotland as “deid men’s oatmeal.”
Hemlock poisoning was not always believed to be so gentle. Nicander, a Roman army doctor who lived from 197 to 130 BC, wrote a prose poem about poisons in which he said: “Take note of the noxious draught which is hemlock, for this drink assuredly looses disaster upon the head bringing the darkness of night: the eyes roll, and men roam the streets with tottering steps and crawling upon their hands; a terrible choking blocks the lower throat and the narrow passage of the windpipe; the extremities grow cold; and in the limbs the stout arteries are contracted; for a short while the victim draws breath like one swooning, and his spirit beholds Hades.”
Scholars eventually concluded that Nicander must have been describing another plant, perhaps monkshood or water hemlock. Definitive proof came from John Harley, a British doctor who took small amounts of hemlock experimentally and reported his remarkably different findings in 1869.
“There was a distinct impairment of motor power,” he wrote. “I felt, so to speak, that ‘the go’ was taken out of me.” He continued, “The legs felt as if they would soon be too weak to support me . . . The mind remained perfectly clear and calm, and the brain active throughout, but the body seemed heavy, and well-nigh asleep.”
Poison hemlock, a plant in the carrot family, is so toxic that it is known in Scotland as “deid men’s oatmeal.” The young plants emerge in spring, and their finely cut leaves and pointed taproots looking deceptively like those of parsley or carrots. They can reach over eight feet tall in one season, producing delicate flowers that resemble Queen Anne’s lace. The stems are hollow and speckled with purple blotches that are sometimes called Socrates’ blood. If you’re in doubt, crush the leaves and smell them. The odor is enough to deter most animals and has been described as smelling of “parsnips or mice.”
Meet the Relatives Poison hemlock is the bad boy in a family that includes dill, celery, fennel, parsley, and anise, which is poisonous if eaten in large quantities.
DESTRUCTIVE
Purple Loosestrife
LYTHRUM SALICARIA
Charles Darwin was enamored of loosestrife. In 1862 he wrote to his friend Asa Gray, a noted American botanist, hoping that Gray might have some specimens for him. “For the love of heaven,” he wrote, “have a look at some of your species, and if you can get me seed, do . . . Seed! Seed! Seed! I should rather like seed of Mitchella. But oh, Lythrum!” He signed the letter, “Your utterly mad friend, C. Darwin.”
FAMILY:
Lythraceae
HABITAT:
Temperate meadows and wetlands
NATIVE TO:
Europe
COMMON NAMES:
Purple lythrum, rainbow weed, spiked loosestrife
Darwin wasn’t the only one who was mad about loosestrife. European settlers brought the meadow plant to America, where it quickly established itself. Gardeners and naturalists had a real affection for the tall, vigorous wildflower and its gorgeous spikes of purple blooms. For most of the twentieth century, horticulturalists enthusiastically recommended it for difficult spots in the garden, such as shady areas or beds with poor soil or bad drainage. As late as 1982 garden writers recognized its weedy tendencies but still referred to it as a “handsome rascal,” as if to suggest that boys will be boys, and gardeners should love the plant for its aggressive nature.
How wrong they were. Purple loosestrife is surely one of the worst invaders the American landscape has seen. It has marched across forty-seven states and most of Canada, and has also made its way into New Zealand, Australia, and across Asia. The plant easily reaches ten feet tall and five feet wide, and as many as fifty stems can sprout from a single, sturdy perennial tap root. If the rootstock wasn’t vigorous enough, a single specimen can produce over 2.5 million seeds in a season. Those seeds can live for twenty years before they sprout.
A single specimen of purple loosestrife can produce over 2.5 million seeds in a season. Those seeds can live for twenty years before they sprout.
Purple loosestrife clogs wetlands and waterways, choking out other plant life and eliminating food sources and habitat for wildlife. An estimated sixteen million acres have been infested with purple loosestrife in the United States alone, and eradication campaigns cost about $45 million per year. The plant is classified as a federal noxious weed and is also illegal to transport or sell in many states. Although other species are sold as noninvasive or sterile alternatives to the dreaded purple loosestrife, native plant experts recommend steering clear of anything labeled Lythrum.
Loosestrife is native to Europe but does not cause the same damage there. That fact provided a clue to controlling it in the United States. Chemical sprays, mechanical cultivations, and other controls weren’t particularly successful, but then researchers tried importing the same bugs that feed on the plant in Europe. Now a few species of root weevils and leaf-eating beetles have been released as a form of biological control, and it’s working. So far, it does not appear that the bugs eat native plants, but introducing one exotic creature to control another always has its risks.
Meet the Relatives Crape myrtles and cuphea, a genus of shrubs with fuchsialike flowers.
DESTRUCTIVE
WEEDS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
Some plants just have a way of taking over. They are not above choking the competition, robbing it of food, or even releasing poisonous compounds underground to get it out of the way. These plants are not just invasive; they’re homicidal.
HYDRILLA
Hydrilla verticillata
A freshwater aquatic plant that migrated from Asia to Florida in the 1960s. It quickly established itself in lakes and rivers, where it puts down sturdy roots and grows up to an inch a day until it reaches the surface. Some individual plants are twenty-five feet long. Because hydrilla is attracted to sunlight, once the plant reaches the water’s surface it will often form a thick mat of vegetation that chokes out aquatic life and makes navigation difficult. Water grows stagnant around a hydrilla infestation, encouraging mosquitoes to breed. It is found in warm, freshwater environments around the United States, and it is almost impossible to eliminate because even the smallest fragment can regenerate. One scientist compared it to herpes. “Once you’ve got it,” he said, “you’ve got it forever.”
DODDER
Cuscuta spp.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has placed most species of dodder on its federal noxious weeds list. This plant parasite looks like an alien life form that has come to suck the life out of the earth’s vegetation, and that’s not too far from the truth. The long, seemingly leafless stems grow in otherworldly colors like orange, pink, red, and yellow. (In fact, dodders do have something like leaves, but they are really just tiny, almost invisible scales.) Dodder does a poor job at photosynthesis, which is why it needs to get its nutrition from another plant. In fact, after the seeds germinate, the young shoots only have about a week to find a host plant or they will die. The seedlings grow in the direction of possible host plants. Laboratory tests have proven that dodders will reach in the direction of the scent of the plant, even if there are no plants growing nearby at all, showing that it actually does have an animal-like sense of smell.
Once a dodder finds a host plant, it wraps itself around its victim, injects tiny fungal structures into it, and sucks out the plant’s nutrients. A single dodder can invade several plants, feeding on all of them at once and eventually killing them. A field smothered in dodder looks like it has been attacked by Silly String.
PURPLE NUTSEDGE
Cyperus rotundus
The worst terrestrial weed, according to many experts. Found throughout the world in temperate climates, it spreads quickly, crowding out native plants and invading croplands. Tilling only encourages it by breaking up underground tubers, each of which produces more plants. But what makes purple nutsedge particularly vicious is its ability to release allelopathic compounds into the soil, which actually kill the competition. Gardeners who allow purple nutsedge to go unchecked will find that it not only has taken over but also poisons other plants.
GIANT SALVINIA
Salvinia molesta
This free-floating aquatic fern can double its population every two days, forming dense mats up to three feet deep on the water’s surface. One of the largest infestations was a stunning ninety-six square miles. Giant salvinia is found in freshwater lakes, wetlands, and streams throughout the southern United States. It thrives in nutrient-rich water, so it grows particularly vigorously in water enriched by fertilizer runoff or sewer-treatment plant waste.
STRANGLER FIGS
Ficus aurea
Known for the decidedly unfriendly habit of wrapping around another tree and strangling it to death. The seeds, which are spread with the help of birds, will often germinate high in the canopy of another tree. Strong, woody roots start wrapping around the host tree and reaching for the ground. Sometimes the roots will completely encircle the tree trunk, and when the tree dies the hollowed-out interior remains, leaving the fig tree in the shape of a giant drinking straw.
Although strangler figs are decidedly creepy, they are generally not considered invasive but are looked upon as an interesting botanical curiosity that has its own niche in the ecosystem.
Once a dodder finds a host plant, it wraps itself around its victim, injects tiny fungal structures into it, and sucks out the plant’s nutrients.
DEADLY
Ratbane
DICHAPETALUM CYMOSUM OR D. TOXICARIUM
Several plants produce the deadly poison sodium fluoroacetate, but the best-known sources are a couple of flowering trees in West Africa, Dichapetalum cymosum and D. toxicarium. Because of the plant’s geographic isolation, the trees didn’t pose much of a threat until the 1940s, when scientists discovered that they could extract the poison and create a potent chemical for controlling rats and predatory animals like coyotes.
FAMILY:
Dichapetalaceae
HABITAT:
Tropical and subtropical areas
NATIVE TO:
Africa
COMMON NAMES:
Poison leaf, rat poison plant
The poison is odorless and tasteless, and only a minute amount is required to kill a mammal. Death comes within a few hours, usually preceded by vomiting, seizures, heart irregularities, and respiratory distress. Survivors may experience permanent damage to vital organs. The poison lingers in the body; if the animal is eaten by another animal, it can poison the rest of the food chain. For this reason, ratbane is sometimes referred to as “the poison that keeps on killing.”
Sodium fluoroacetate, which is also called Compound 1080, was used on and off until 1972, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned it along with sodium cyanide and strychnine. However, the agency later allowed the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue using the poison in livestock protection collars. The collars contain fifteen milliliters of Compound 1080, and they can be fitted around the throat of sheep and cattle. When a coyote reaches for the jugular, it will get a toxic dose of this poison instead.
The poison lingers in the body; if the animal is eaten by another animal, it can poison the rest of the food chain. For this reason, ratbane is sometimes referred to as “the poison that keeps on killing.”
Use of the chemical for predator management is controversial. Some conservationists argue that strapping such a potent toxin to the necks of livestock could inadvertently result in the poisoning of fish, birds, and water supplies. Aerial spraying in New Zealand to kill invasive rats and possums has prompted outcry from activists who oppose the use of this indiscriminate killer.
The poison attracted attention in 2004, when it was used by a mysterious serial killer to wipe out scores of animals in a São Paulo zoo. No trace of the poison was found in the animals’ food or water, which suggested a very sophisticated killer with good access to the animals. Camels, porcupines, chimpanzees, and elephants died while zoo staff scrambled to put in security measures. Although the poison is banned in Brazil, the killer managed to smuggle it in and cause terrible destruction.
In 2006 a little-noticed notation in the Iraq Study Group’s report revealed that one of the chemical stockpiles found by coalition forces contained vials of Compound 1080 manufactured by a company in Oxford, Alabama. How did Saddam Hussein get it and what did he plan to do with it? Representative Peter DeFazio, a Democrat from Oregon, wasn’t sure, but he thought that the risk of the substance’s getting used as a chemical weapon outweighed its benefits as a form of livestock control. According to news reports, the EPA told him that it would only ban the chemical upon the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and that department told him that it could not recommend the banning of any particular chemical. He introduced a bill outlawing sodium fluoroacetate, but it died in committee.
Meet the Relatives Ratbane is related to a few other flowering trees and shrubs found in Africa and South America, including those in the genuses Tapura and Stephanopodium.
DEADLY
Rosary Pea
ABRUS PRECATORIUS
In the future, a common tropical plant is to play an important part in forecasting our weather,” reported the Washington Po
st in 1908. The plant was Abrus precatorius, and Professor Joseph Nowack, Baron de Fridland, of Vienna, was its tireless promoter. The baron planned to set up botanical weather stations around the world, where this mysterious tropical vine would be nurtured and carefully read for weather patterns. If its feathery leaves pointed up, that called for a fine day; if they pointed down, thunderstorms were coming.
FAMILY:
Fabaceae
HABITAT:
Dry soil, low elevations, tropical climates
NATIVE TO:
Tropical Africa and Asia; naturalized in tropical and subtropical regions throughout the world
COMMON NAMES:
Jequirity bean, precatory bean, deadly crab’s eye, ruti, Indian licorice, weather plant
Baron Nowack was never able to prove his claims and build his weather stations, but he did manage to call the public’s attention to one of the world’s deadliest seeds.
The rosary pea vine winds through tropical jungles, wrapping its slender stems around trees and shrubs. The mature plant develops a strong, woody stem for support, allowing the vine to climb ten to fifteen feet. Pale violet flowers appear in small clusters on a stalk, and then the pods emerge, holding within them their shining, poisonous jewels.
Each glossy seed is bright red with one black dot at the hilum, which is the scar left behind where the pea attached to the pod. They are the size and color of a ladybug, making them popular beads for jewelry making.