The dark pointed spines protruding from the smooth brown bark of the sandbox tree give the plant an ominous look to begin with, but should you wander by one laden with pumpkin-shaped fruit, you'd be wise to take cover. That's because the tangerine-sized seedpods of the sandbox tree can literally explode with a gunshot-like bang when the time is ripe, flinging flat seeds up to 300 feet at more than 150 miles per hour. Eat one of these previously projectile seeds, and you'll double over with intestinal cramps, diarrhea and vomiting, not to mention a rapid heartbeat and impaired vision. Eat ... Read More

Ah, the sweet smell of ragweed ... bane of every outdoor allergy sufferer's existence. Come late summer and early fall, most of the air across the United States — especially from the Midwest to the East Coast — is teeming with ragweed pollen, causing as many as 30 percent of adults and 40 percent of children to suffer from allergic rhinitis, or "hay fever." Symptoms — sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, and itchy eyes, nose and throat — begin in mid-August when individual ragweed plants start releasing the billion or so pollen grains they will produce during the growing season and ... Read More

In one of the best examples of promotion gone terribly, terribly wrong, kudzu — lovingly referred to as 'The Vine that Ate the South' — was once touted as a miraculous combination of forage crop, erosion controller and ornamental vine that just happened to come with a refreshing grape scent. Fast forward 100 years, and the vine, native to Japan, is smothering the southeastern United States in a canopy of 4-inch, emerald green leaves. Listed by Congress as a "federal noxious weed" in 1998, kudzu has infested an estimated 7 million acres between Texas and New York. Its infestations are ... Read More

Pet owners and parents beware. The sago palm wants you to think it's just a pretty addition to your garden landscape, but in reality it is one of the most toxic household shrubs planted today. The entire plant, not just its red seeds, are full of carcinogens and neurotoxins that can induce vomiting, headaches and seizures upon ingestion. One chemical, cycasin, can cause permanent liver and neurological damage if large enough quantities are absorbed by the body. The amino acid beta-methylamino-L-alanine, on the other hand, is a neurotoxin suspected of inducing nerve degeneration and tremor ... Read More

All plants need the sun in order to grow, but leave it to blister bush to use the sun against you. Native to the Table Mountain region of South Africa, blister bush, with its greenish-yellow umbrella-shaped flowers, is perfectly harmless. Perfectly harmless that is, until you touch it and an unpleasant cocktail of psoralen, xanthotoxin, bergapten and other chemicals are brushed off the plant's leaves and onto your skin. In all likelihood, you won't know anything is wrong until two or three days later when a severe, red-purple rash and large burn-like welts appear on your skin. Blister ... Read More

Magneto, The Joker, Lex Luthor. Every comic series has its top villain, and the world of evil plants is no different. In her book Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities, Amy Stewart provocatively introduces her choice and ours for the world's most wicked plant, tobacco, as follows: "A leaf so toxic that it has taken the lives of 90 million people worldwide ... so addictive that it fueled a war against Native Americans, so powerful that it led to the establishment of slavery in the American South; and so lucrative that it spawned a global industry ... Read More