Synopses & Reviews
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, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred 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.
Review
"Culling legend and citing science, Stewart's fact-filled, AZ compendium of nature's worst offenders offers practical and tantalizing composite views of toxic, irritating, prickly, and all-around ill-mannered plants." ---Booklist
Synopsis
Bestselling author Amy Stewart presents the sordid tales of plants behaving badly, from the tree that sheds poison daggers to the leaf that triggered a war.
About the Author
Amy Stewart is the bestselling author of several books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world: From the Ground Up, The Earth Moved, Flower Confidential, and Wicked Plants. Her essays and commentaries have appeared on NPR, in the New York Times, and in Fine Gardening and other magazines. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the American Horticultural Society's 2010 Book Award. Amy lives in Eureka, California, where she and her husband own an antiquarian bookstore. Coleen Marlo is an accomplished actor who has appeared on stage, in film, and on television, and is a member of the prestigious Actors Studio. She also taught acting for ten years at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner, Coleen has been awarded three Listen-Up Awards from Publishers Weekly, including for Third World America by Arianna Huffington and The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum. She has also earned three Audie Award nominations, winning for Snakewoman of Little Egypt by Robert Hellenga. Publishers Weekly has named Coleen Audiobook Reader of the Year for 2010.