One more question...

Amy Stewart, author of the new book, ‘Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities,’ answers one more question for Green House in the May 31st issue in the Chicago Sun-Times.


GREENHOUSE: Do you really believe there are wicked plants or are they just misunderstood?

AMY: A little of both. Take a really invasive plant like kudzu or loosestrife or killer algae (Caulerpa taxifolia). These plants get around with our help.
They are opportunists; they do what they are designed to do, which is to reproduce. We are the guilty party in these horticultural crimes; we're the ones who drove the getaway vehicle. They just make themselves at home wherever we happen to bring them.
And coca (Erythroxylum coca) is an interesting example. Cocaine has fueled a global drug war and ruined countless lives, but Andean farmers argue that coca leaves were chewed as a mild stimulant for centuries, whereas cocaine is a European invention dating back only 150 years. The position of some farmers is that they should be allowed to continue to grow the plant they've always grown, and we should go deal with our cocaine problem at home. Now, there are arguments to be made on both sides of that debate, but it's an interesting point. On its own, coca is nothing more than a shrub. It's what we do with it that changes everything.
But a plant like ratbane (Dichapetalum cymosum or D. toxicarium), which is so toxic that it's used as a rat poison and as a chemical weapon? That's not misunderstood—that's terrifying!