Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants

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If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland A youth-friendly addition to the list, this illustrated short horror story about a family visiting an exotic garden can be read for entertainment and a cautionary tale. The moral contained within is reminiscent of early botanical gothic fiction. Gorgeous, whimsical drawings are juxtaposed against a creepy tale to great effect. 5. The Haunting of Willow Creek: A Hopeful Horror Novel by Sara Crocoll Smith The facts presented about the plants are as varied as the range of plants covered. Each entry might span many different cultures and touch on information like how plants got their name, how they were used during different time periods, what superstitions people had about them and why. (And if you’re an academic nerd like me, rest assured that it’s all very well cited!) The broad nature of the knowledge conveyed is cool because it gives a more thorough picture of what life is like in these different cultures. Names, in particular, have a lot to say about the societal values of a time. One of my favorite examples of that is Devil’s Bit, named because the highly medicinal roots were also abnormally short, leading people to believe that the devil “bit” off the rest of the roots so less medicine could be made from them. The different utilities people found for plants that are toxic are interesting too—for example, bug collectors used to place live specimens in a jar with crushed laurel leaves so the toxic fumes from the laurel would kill the insect without damaging it. Edited by rising star A.R. Ward, this Ghost Orchid Press anthology contains 50 eco-horror tales from emerging authors. While eco-horror is more broadly defined than botanical gothic and can include animals and other ecological phenomena, you’ll find a number of stories to love in this book that are considered botanical gothic. I’m thrilled that my short story “The Devour of the Saddle Flower” is included within this spine-chilling anthology. 3. What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher

Botanical Curses and Poisons - The Shadow-Lives of Plants Botanical Curses and Poisons - The Shadow-Lives of Plants

There’s a bit of an introduction section, and then the book goes through a bunch of plants alphabetically, talking about myths involved with them, or how they were used throughout history. I was hugely surprised by nearly every plant listed in this book, and just how they have been used for some pretty major parts of history, like how hellebore was used to turn the tide of a pretty major historical battle, for example, or how the nectar of the angel’s trumpet flowers were used by Victorian women at teatime to get a bit drunk. Mint is even mentioned, not because it’s a poison, but because of the mythology of the plant.If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.’ – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland. What you get:

Botanical Curses and Poisons The Shadow-Lives of Plants - NHBS

Fez Inkwright is an illustrator, author, and folklorist. Her greatest passions are botany, nature, primitive religions, and folklore, which flavor most of her work. For the past eight years she has produced work for children’s books, hand-drawn maps, and tattoo design, and now spends her time indulging in conservation work and writing. She lives in Bristol, UK, with two cats and several hundred bees. Available As: This collection is a stellar roundup of tales that capture the birth of the botanical gothic genre. Published in the span of 1844 to 1932, the 14 short fiction works in the collection are written by some of the greatest gothic writers in history. Daisy Butcher gives a fascinating and insightful introduction that will make you want to dive deeper into the collected stories and the genre itself. 2. Chlorophobia: An Eco-Horror Anthology by A.R. Ward If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.’ – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland About the Author

Desirable for the stunning cover and gorgeous interior illustrations alone, I wanted to include this nonfiction book about the shadow-lives of plants. Fez Inkwright gives a brief history of poisons and then includes an A-Z of the dark side of plants. It’s a handy guide that I know will be by my side for inspiration for a long time to come! Plant Your Roots in Botanical Gothic If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison,’ it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.”– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland Discover the folklore and history of our most toxic plants through this beautifully produced, gorgeously illustrated compendium. The A-Z layout of the plants makes for a really manageable structure, and gives the reader regular natural breaks to allow for them to reflect and absorb what they have read. But the facts and stories themselves are so interesting that you can easily read a large portion in one sitting. I’ll be honest, at first a book about just poisons didn’t seem as wide of a topic as a book about herbal medicine in general, and so I was surprised to see that Botanical Curses and Poisons is actually quite a bit longer than Folk Magic and Healing. But describing it as a book about poisons is selling it short. Lots of plants can be poisonous but only in specific ways—maybe only a certain part of the plant is toxic or it’s dangerous only if prepared in a certain way. (Inky cap mushrooms, for instance, are safe to eat unless consumed with alcohol, at which point they become poisonous.) Plus, in addition to poisonous plants, it covers all sorts of plants with sinister history, ranging from uses in dark magic to mythological associations with death. The latter is actually a huge category, as there are all sorts of fascinating reasons a plant would become associated with death—perhaps it’s the favored flower of a goddess of death, or it might grow in graveyards, or it smells like rotting flesh, or maybe it just has a pale and spectral look that made people think of ghosts. Beans were associated with death in the British Isles because people noticed that more accidents happened in the mines during the season when bean plants flower, which was definitely caused by the beans and not the fact that mines were more dangerous during the rainy season! Other plants have built-in abilities that can feel sinister or malevolent. Cogon grass is very flammable and burns hotter than regular flames, an ability it uses to burn down the other plants around it to make room for cogon shoots to sprout in the newly barren earth.