Short 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.

Full Synopsis
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.

"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

"The text is highly intriguing. . . . Reader Coleen Marlo is excellent and recites the botanical lingo with ease." ---Library Journal Audio Review