Poisonous Weeds Essay -- Plants Poison Nature Essays Papers

Poisonous Weeds From the book Common Poisonous Plants and Mushroom of North America by Nancy J. Turner and Adam F. Szczawinski comes a very interesting story. â€Å"In April 1980, a five-year-old child was fatally poisoned in Victoria, British Columbia from eating Poison Hemlock while at play with her sisters. Her babysitter was not even aware that she had eaten the plant. The little girl felt sick and would not eat. She laid down, and within an hour fell into a deep coma. It was only at this point that her sisters recalled that earlier she had eaten a plant. She was rushed to the hospital, but despite all efforts to save her life, she died six days later† (Szczawinski, Turner, xi). Poison Hemlock is just one of the thousands of plants that are poisonous to humans as well as animals. In addition, the plants Jimsonweed and Deadly Nightshade can also have extremely harmful effects on humans. All three of these poisonous plants can turn up anywhere from hiking trails to backyards to fie lds, so therefore it is important to be able to identify them and understand how deadly they potentially can be. In order to prevent what happened in the story at the beginning, let’s look more closely at Poison Hemlock (Conium Maculatum). When mature, this carrot-like plant can get up to six feet or greater in height with triangular, fern-like leaves (Szczawinski, Turner, 129). The plant possesses white flowers, which are grouped in numerous umbrella-like clusters. Small, grayish brown, and flat with five curvy ridges running lengthwise describe the fruit of Poison Hemlock. However, beware of ever crushing or even touching this plant because a strong mouse odor will be emitted. Originally from Europe, Poison Hemlock is now an obnoxiou... ...ipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadly_Nightshade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_Hemlock Natural Resources Conservation Service-http://plants.usda.gov Research and Extension Center: Virtual Herbarium-http://uvalde.tamu.edu/herbarium/dain.htm National Capital Poison Center- http://www.poison.org/prevent/plants.asp Ophthalmic Kew Garden- http://www.mrcophth.com/plants/minipicturesofplantsforeyes.html Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University-Bozeman and MSU Extension Services Noxious Weed Specialist, respectively- http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt200013.html Poison Hemlock Site- http://museum.gov.ns.ca/poison/hemlock.htm