Wicked Plants

A while back TPP wondered about wicked plants only to find out there was a book by Amy Stewart.  In about 30 mins TPP will be at a cocktail party featuring Amy Stewart.  This all sounds like such wicked good fun.  Wicked Plants was not one of those books from which TPP learned very much, but it does tell a lot of nice little stories and would be of great interest to most plant fanciers.  Ms. Stewart is a guest of our horticulture program.  Now if it would only stop raining because its to be a garden party.  However, once even indoors, TPP attended a cocktail party where you did not need to ask for a splash of water in your scotch because it was lightly raining inside the Missouri Botanical Garden's Climatron.  Having just shipped a book ms off to the editors we can only hope to be as popular as Ms. Stewart's, but realistically very few books on botany ever do that well.  So TPP must salute her success.

Something wicked this way comes - book report.

Not too long ago the Phactor asked for help about wicked plants, an interesting idea, for a colleague.  After your helpful comments and suggestions, the Phactor decided he had better read the book that sparked my colleague to seek some wicked plants.  At any rate, here's my report on Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart.  The Phactor would recommend this book for an interesting, convenient read, nice short installments for time challenged people.  Well over 200 plants are included with interesting essays.  The book has an old-timey feel with tinted papers and illustrations.  The essays are quite readable, non-technical, although strangely the author chooses to use scientific names rather than common names for families, which is rather at odds with the low-key approach.  As someone who teaches these things, only two entries were new to me.  Now our definitions of wicked may also differ: Illegal, dangerous, deadly, painful, intoxicating, offensive, or destructive.  Personally the Phactor doesn't think of plants as wicked, although they may be all of these 7 things.  People can be wicked, but plants just have biologies and these features tell us how the plant evolved, but the quality of being wicked seems a peculiarly human trait, but that's just what kind of cynical guy the Phactor is.  The book is quite well researched with only a couple of things that could be called errors.  Almost anybody who likes plants will find this little book interesting, and it's quite economically priced. 

Wicked plants this way come

The Phactor gets many unusual requests, and this morning in my favorite coffee shop, the lovely Jessica says she wishes to construct a display of "wicked plants", and asks me for ideas.  Wicked can mean many thing to many people, so with that in mind, help the Phactor out.  What plants are wicked?  At one extreme, there's Wicked Wanda, purveyor of Wicked Wanda's Leather and Lace.  Not quite sure what all she sells, but based on the window display of whips  and corsets you get a pretty good idea.  And then there's the wicked as in he throws a "wicked goggly" (and yes, TPP does know a bit of foreign language).  There must be other wickeds that apply to plants.  Let's help Jessica out, and fill the comments with suggestions!