Something Wicked This Way Grows
Oh, sure, they look pretty, but don’t be fooled. Some flora will explode in your face, some will take over the earth if left unchecked, some could kill you or make you wish you were dead. Here is a top 10 list of the planet’s evil greens.
By: Julia Griffin | June 2, 2009 | 16:10 PM (PDT) | 
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Good and evil — even in plant kingdom you can’t have one without the other.
Recently Miller-McCune.com brought you the top 10 Super Plants that could save the world. Now, with the help of author Amy Stewart and her new book Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, we’ve selected the 10 of most intriguing plants bent on world — or at least ecosystem — domination.
Deadly, invasive, intoxicating or just plain smelly, the specimens Stewart catalogues in Wicked Plants range from the wildly exotic to the worrisomely common — a whole section, in fact, is dedicated to house plants that “could be your last.” Both a literary and visual pleasure (Briony Morrow-Cribb’s copper etching illustrations are exquisite), Wicked Plants is enchantingly disturbing as it seeks not to strike fear in its readers, but enlighten them on the power, beauty 
and sheer evil taking root just outside their windows.
While one is technically an algae, the 10 plants we’ve singled out, researched and presented here are just a few of the more than 200 Stewart describes in her book. For more information on other badly behaved plants you should keep an eye out for, we recommend taking Wicked Plants home for a weekend read. Of course, you may want to read it indoors …
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Written By:Julia Griffin
Julia Griffin is a master's candidate in environmental science and management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A fellow at the Miller-McCune Center in 2009, before that she worked as a film researcher for John-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Future Society and a producer/writer in CNN's Science and Technology Unit. She has a degree in marine biology from Duke University, and hopes to pursue a career in science and environmental journalism.
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