Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues and Assassins
Paralysis, strangulation, derangement — these are just a few of the misdeeds of the plant kingdom as chronicled by award-winning author Amy Stewart in Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln’s Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities. And now, something wicked this way comes.
It’s mayhem under glass, as the San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park has transformed its Special Exhibits Gallery into an eerie Victorian garden full of Mother Nature’s most appalling creations. Building on the fascinating plant portraits in Stewart’s book, the Conservatory introduces visitors to living examples of dozens of infamous plants that have left their mark on history and claimed many an unfortunate victim.
Wicked Plants: Botanical Rogues & Assassins will be on view through October 30, 2011.
"Naturally, there’s nothing like a good crime to pique people’s interest in plants," says Brent Dennis, Director of the Conservatory. Opened in 1879, the wood and glass greenhouse is the oldest existing conservatory in North America; the Conservatory of Flowers is a spectacular living museum of rare and beautiful tropical plants under glass. From Borneo to Bolivia, the 1,750 species of plants at the Conservatory represent unusual flora from more than 50 countries around the world. Immersive displays in five galleries include the lowland tropics, highland tropics, aquatic plants, potted plants and special exhibits.
Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects by Amy Stewart
As visitors enter the exhibition, they find themselves in a mysterious, untended yard behind a ramshackle old Victorian home. Peeking through the window, it’s clear that a crime has just taken place. A man is slumped over on a table, a goblet in his lifeless hand, as the lady of the house flees in the background. Crows caw, and a rusty gate creaks. In the overgrown garden, moss covered statues rise up out of an unruly thicket of alluring plants. Beautiful flowers and glistening berries bewitch the eye, but consider yourself warned — these plants have such names as deadly nightshade, poison hemlock and white snakeroot.
The exhibition features over 30 species of wicked plants from those with famously scandalous histories to those that grow “innocently” in millions of gardens and homes today. Visitors can enjoy corresponding excerpts from Stewart’s book full of bloodcurdling tales and fascinating facts on signs throughout the gallery.
"I'm very drawn to storytelling as a writer, and I love it that the plant world is full of such drama and intrigue," says Stewart. " Plants nourish us, they feed us, and they provide the very oxygen we breathe — but they also have to defend themselves. I hope people will come away from the exhibit with a new level of respect for the power of the plant kingdom — but I also hope they will be entertained. The Conservatory exhibit staff turns out to have a very wicked sense of humor, and they've created an exhibit beyond anything I could have imagined."
More Articles
- The Scout Report: Civil Rights Toolkit; Be All Write; Plants Are Cool, Too; NextStrain; Women'n Art; 500 Years of Women In British Art
- Elaine Soloway's Widow Series: The Opposite of Caregiving & The Takeover
- Serendipity in the Woods: Author Carol Gracie Explores the History and Life of Wildflowers
- A MoMA Look Back: The Delphiniums of Edward Steichen