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A Poisoner’s Guide to Central Park

Within the confines of New York City’s Central Park, there exists enough poison to threaten the good times and good health of every jogger, Sunday picnicker, dog walker, and huddled lover. I headed down to the world's most famous park to catalog nature...

Within the confines of New York City’s Central Park, there exists enough poison to threaten the good times and good health of every jogger, Sunday picnicker, dog walker, and huddled lover. The poisons are in many of the plants that park-goers pass every day. Aided by my knowledge of botany that I picked up as a feral-minded child in the forests of Michigan, I headed to Central Park to catalog nature’s deadly bounty.

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White Snakeroot

Description: Tall perennial with paired saw-toothed leaves and clusters of small white flowers.

Poison: Every part of the plant contains the poison tremetol. When it's consumed in large quantities it can cause tremors, severe gastro-intestinal pain, vomiting, delirium, and death.

History: White snakeroot killed thousands of early settlers in America when cows would eat the plant and pass on the poison in their milk. As a nine-year old boy, Abraham Lincoln watched his mother die this way.

Jimsonweed

Description: Sprawling annual with irregular leaves, green spiked fruits, and puplish-white trumpet-shaped flowers.

Active agents: All parts of the plant contain the nervous system poison hyoscyamine and the hallucinogen scopolamine. Symptoms of Jimsonweed consumption include dilated pupils, blurred vision, nausea, racing pulse, delirium, and convulsions. The victim typically dies of asphyxiation.

History: Jimsonweed is the reason that witches are said to fly on broomsticks. Broomsticks were reputedly used by occult practitioners to administer jimsonweed vaginally in order to induce flying hallucinations.

Poison Ivy

Description: Three-leafed shrub or vine with light-grey clustered berries.

Active agents: All parts of the plants contain the irritant urushiol. While not typically deadly on the surface of the skin, if eaten or smoked, poison ivy can cause the airway to swell shut, inducing asphyxiation.

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History: As poison ivy often grows on the periphery of forests hampering human intrusion, many Native Americans believed it to be a spiritual guardian of such places.

Pokeberry

Description: Tall perennial with large teardrop-shaped leaves and purple-black berries in lengthy clusters.

Poison: Phytolaccatoxin permeates the entire plant, but is especially concentrated in the fruit. Symptoms of poisoning include heavy perspiration and salivation, vomiting, difficulty breathing, convulsions, and death.

History: The Constitution of the United States may be the deadliest constitution in the world, as it was written in pokeberry ink.

The Apple Tree

Description: A small apple-producing tree with oval leaves that tend to be dark green on top and light green on the bottom.

Poison: The fruit of the apple tree is, of course, edible, but their hard-shelled seeds contain cyanide. Deprived of the ability to absorb oxygen, the victim convulses and dies within minutes. Half a cup full of crushed seeds is enough to kill an adult human.

History: Fast-acting cyanide capsules were issued to prominent Nazis in the waning days of World War II, where they were used by men like Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Göring to evade capture.

Roc’s new book, And, was released last year. You can find more information on his website.

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