Top 10 Poisonous Plants
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Deceptively attractive, some of these top 10 flowers and plants can give you headaches, cause convulsions or simply kill you. Children as old as 6 years old are most vulnerable; they account for 85 percent of all calls to poison centers, though the most commonly consumed culprits in poison cases are cosmetics, personal care products, cleansers and pills. Most plants are safe, but here are some you need to know be aware of. They may appear in your own yard or even around your house.
Here is the list of top 10 most poisonous plants:
10. Doll’s Eye
Also known as White Baneberry, Doll’s eyes are a flowering plant and are most prevalent in Northern and Eastern North America. The name originates from the fruit of the plant, which is a tiny white berry with a contrasting black dot which looks very similar to an eye.
Although the whole plant is toxic when ingested by humans, the fruit or ‘the eye’ is where most of the toxins are concentrated. Because they look like little candies and are sweet tasting, the plant is notorious for claiming unsuspecting children’s lives. The toxin produced by the plant is carcinogenic and has an immediate, sedative effect on human cardiac muscles and will cause a quick death if consumed.
The droopy, beautiful angel trumpet which also goes by the name Brugmansia, is native to regions of South America. It contains a cornucopia of powerful toxins. Some of these include atropine, hyoscyamine, and scopolamine.
Documented in the 2007 VBS.tv documentary “Colombian Devil’s Breath,” nefarious individuals in Colombia will extract scopolamine from the plant and use it as a potent drug which leaves victims completely unaware of what they are doing but entirely conscious. It essentially turns them into living zombies. Scopolamine can be easily absorbed through the skin and mucous membranes, allowing them to simply blow the powder in a victim’s face. The documentary is full of horror stories by individuals who have been attacked in this way. One such account includes the story of a man moving all of his possessions out of his house (and into the hands of thieves) without remembering any of it.
8. Giant Pitcher Plant
While not deadly to humans, the giant pitcher plant is incredibly deadly to bugs, spiders, flies and even mice and rats. That’s right, the giant pitcher plant, also known as Nepenthes attenboroughii, has been known to feast on small rodents who unwittingly slip into the incredibly slick pitcher. Discovered 5000 feet above sea level on Mount Victoria in the Philippines, the largest known carnivorous plant secretes a nectar-like substance to lure unsuspecting prey into a pool of enzymes and acid. A series of sticky, downward ribs makes it nearly impossible for trapped prey to escape. Because pitcher plants tend to grow in nitrogen-deficient environments, they get their nutrients from decaying victims instead of the soil.
7. Common Bladderwort
The common bladderwort, also known as Utricularia macrorhiza, is an aquatic meat eater which relies on submerged bladders to capture its prey which includes tadpoles and small crustaceans. An unsuspecting tadpole or minnow will brush against an external bristle which triggers the bladders to spring open and capture it. After caught by the plant, its victim will die of suffocation or starvation and then decays into a goo which is sucked up by cells on the inner walls of the bladder.
6. White Snakeroot
White snake root is the sixth most poisonous plant on this Top 10 list, commonly found in North America. Their flowers are white and, after blooming, small fluffy seeds blow away in the wind. This plant has a high % of the toxin tremetol, which does not kill humans directly, but can still do so indirectly. When the plant is eaten by cattle, the toxin is absorbed into their milk and meat. When humans then, in turn, eat the beef or drink the milk, the toxin enters the body and causes something called milk sickness, which can be fatal to the person drinking it. Thousands of ignorant European settlers died from milk sickness in America in the 1800s. It is also believed that Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks, died from the same kind of illness caused by this deadly plant.
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