Wicked Plants on exhibit in San Francisco - Boing Boing

via boingboing.net

San Francisco's gorgeous Conservatory of Flowers is hosting an exhibit titled "Wicked Plants," all about poisonous plants and their place in history, from the lethal ricin-producing castor bean, to hemlock -- aka "dead men's oatmeal" (above), to white snakeroot, the weed that did in Abe Lincoln's mom. The exhibit is named for Amy Stewart's book "Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues & Assassins" that tells true tales of these fearful flora. For example, in 1978, Bulgarian dissident journalist Georgi Markov was assassinated with a poke to his leg from an umbrella tipped with ricin. From the Conservatory of Flowers:

Posted via email from vichoon's posterous