523. Plants That Kill

BROWDERBOOKS

Recently my e-mails were hacked; people received requests that they buy me a gift card.  Fortunately, those who know me weren't fooled.  When several friends phoned to inform me of the hacking, I immediately changed my e-mail password and informed scores of people on my e-mail list of the scam.  The scammer was clumsy, knew nothing about me, was vague and unconvincing in his approach.  (Scammers can be very convincing, but not this one.)

As if that weren't enough, changing my password somehow blocked all incoming e-mails and most spams as well.   A long session by phone with an AOL rep finally resolved the issue by discovering and deleting two filters that were blocking the incoming e-mails.  How those filters were activated I will never grasp.

Meanwhile Hurricane Henri hit and sent water dripping through the roof into my bedroom.  I caught the water as best I could in pans, but damage was done.  The dripping ended only when the rain did, and so  far as I know, the leaks have yet to be patched.  And heavy rain is predicted at intervals over the weekend.

Did all this fuss affect the e-book sale of New Yorkers: A Feisty People? at $0.99?  I hope not.  The sale still ends this Sunday night, when the price goes back to $3.99.  

Well, it hasn't been dull.  But now I'm ready for some dullness.  Quite a lot of it, in fact.

                    PLANTS  THAT  KILL

Plants that kill have always fascinated me.  I’ll cite three that I have known.

Poison hemlock

 

 

 

Here in the city, up in Van Cortlandt Park, near a huge sycamore tree at least three-feet thick that towers high above it, hemlock grows, its cluster of little white flowers above the fernlike leaves.  This is Poison hemlock, Conium maculatum, whose juice did Socrates in. As Plato tells it, Socrates, condemned to death for “corrupting the youth” of Athens, drank the juice, felt a numbness overcoming him, and died peacefully.  

But anyone contemplating suicide and hoping for just such a death should reconsider.  Those who confuse the plant with wild parsley and eat it die a horrible death with convulsions.  How does one tell it from similar nonpoisonous species?  The Latin word maculatum, “spotted,” is a clue.  The purple-spotted, grooved green stems identify it as poison hemlock.  A further warning: if bruised, it emits an unpleasant smell.  So for God’s sake, keep away.  This quiet little plant of the parsley family means trouble.

Common milkweed

 

 

 

A stout, downy plant that loves dry, sun-bathed fields, where I have seen it in batches.  In July it blooms: domed clusters of little flowers, their fragrance intoxicating, their color ranging from dusty rose to dull brownish purple.  If bruised, the stem bleeds a milky juice, hence the name “milkweed.”  

The cloyingly sweet aroma of the flowers lures insects to deep pools of nectar past sticky pollen that is a death trap for bees.  I have seen bees squirming, tugging, writhing, doomed to be eaten by spiders or yellow jacket wasps unless, with deft strokes of a twig, I free them and send them on their pollinating way.  I always do this, having a soft spot in my heart for honey bees.

In autumn milkweed's warty brown seedpods appear.  Splitting open, they reveal tight-packed rows of seeds, hundreds of them, like a medieval painting's angelic chorus glorifying God.  I love to pluck them out, silken and fluffy, and toss them in the breeze, where they drift like legions of tiny parachutes whitening the sky.

Fragrant, delicately hued, with a charming display of drifting seeds:  such is milkweed.  But a death trap for bees.  And all parts of the plant are poisonous, if eaten.  They can cause nausea and diarrhea, and if heartily consumed, even death.  Luckily, milkweed resembles no similar plant that is edible, so few foragers are tempted to gather it.

Destroying angel

Amanita virosa, one of the deadliest mushrooms known.  I have seen it in the woods on Monhegan Island, Maine, where I often vacationed: a mushroom with a classic mushroom shape, quite lovely in its simplicity, white against the forest floor or dark trunks of trees.  It is often confused with edible mushrooms by those who don’t know the characteristics of the Amanita family: fragments of a universal veil on the cap (sometimes missing); a ring or annulus on the stem (remains of a partial veil); and an enlarged base.  If, when hunting for mushrooms, you encounter something with these characteristics, if you value your life, keep away.  And when the mushrooms first come out of the ground, completely enclosed in their universal veil, they could be confused with edible puffballs, another error that could cost you your life.

Amanita poisoning is insidious.  At first one experiences no symptoms.  Then, after six hours or more, there is nausea, cramps, and diarrhea.  Next, these symptoms disappear and for two or three days the victims think themselves healed.  But since the liver and kidneys have been severely damaged, rapid deterioration follows, and after three to seven days, death.  Death is rare if the victim seeks treatment promptly, but a delay can be fatal.

Nature charms, nature inspires, nature kills.  Beauty and danger cohabit.  Beauty is bonded with death.

©  2021  Clifford Browder