There is nothing good about the plant.

January 7, 2024 1:29 PM

Meet the spotted water hemlock, the most poisonous plant in North America. "Those who eat it will die in two hours. It must be a painful death. It twists the arms and ankles and turns the head back. Finally they die in a last wretching convulsion. They say it turns the eyes back."
posted by goatdog (29 comments total)

I have hazy childhood memories of learning about Queen Anne's lace (very common in Maryland) and a toxic lookalike. This was probably it.

(Also: I know "turns the eyes back" is a direct quote from the article, but I wonder if that's a typo and is meant to read "turns the eyes black.")
posted by Faint of Butt at 1:37 PM on January 7 [4 favorites]

fascinating, now I'll shall go write the history of the lemon.
posted by clavdivs at 1:37 PM on January 7 [4 favorites]

MetaFilter: There are toxic plants that may kill you but will be nice about it.
posted by chavenet at 1:40 PM on January 7 [4 favorites]

(Also: I know "turns the eyes back" is a direct quote from the article, but I wonder if that's a typo and is meant to read "turns the eyes black.")

As the article mentions, the quote is taken from a 1941 Smithsonian Institution anthropology article on suicide in Haudenosaunee culture, and appears to be from an interview with a Seneca man named Dwight Jimmerson. It is not a typo- the muscle contractions cause your eyes to roll back into your head. Here’s the full text.

Another Seneca informant remarked

That plant is poison. All the Indians —every nation in western New York and Canada [the Iroquois tribes] —know that that plant is poison. They all know that Indians have taken it to commit suicide. That root will take effect immediately. They die in 2 hours. I know of no antidote that will counteract it. A teaspoonful of the root will kill a man. I have tasted it and spit it out, and it does not taste badly. There is nothing good about the plant [and this informant does not even use it as a poultice]. Those who eat it die in 2 hours. It must be a painful death. It twists the arms and ankles and turns the head back. Finally they die in a last wretching convulsion. They say it turns the eyes back. They turn in awful shape.

He had never heard that the plant grows on its victim's grave. “There is no compulsion about the plant. Unless you want to take it, it will not make you.” (Dwight Jimmerson.)

posted by zamboni at 2:05 PM on January 7 [7 favorites]

(Also: I know "turns the eyes back" is a direct quote from the article, but I wonder if that's a typo and is meant to read "turns the eyes black.")

I thought it was like "rolls them back in your head" -- which sounds consistent with the convulsions of twisting your arms and legs to the maximum.

Wikipedia claims it can also wipe your pre-poisoning memories. So... it could make a good opening for a story. "PAIN PAIN PAIN PAIN... what the fuck just happened? where am I? who am I?"

See also: Accidental Ingestion of Water Hemlock: Report of Two Patients with Acute and Chronic Effects (California Medicine, August 1973, PDF)
posted by pracowity at 2:05 PM on January 7 [3 favorites]

It is not a typo- the muscle contractions cause your eyes to roll back into your head.

I stand corrected.
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:15 PM on January 7

The nominal active ingredient, cicutoxin, has an LD50 of 7mg/kg in mouse. This isn't that high! * You'd need to eat half a gram- a lot! I can't imagine roots contain more than 1% by weight, which means you'd need to eat 100g - almost 4 oz...To get close to this.

Either the LD50 in humans is way lower or something else is happening re other ingredients toxicity or synergy with the cicutoxin - or both.

Still not gonna chew on it!

,*E.g. some mycotoxins (from mushrooms) ld50s are less than 0.1 mg/kg! At least 70x more potent.....
posted by lalochezia at 2:42 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

found this rather chilling.
"Poisoning has been reported following children blowing whistles made from the hollow stem of water hemlock plants.[21]....Intoxication has also been reported following skin contact with the plant; in one case, a family of five rubbed the plant onto the skin and were poisoned, with two children dying.[22]
posted by clavdivs at 2:59 PM on January 7 [3 favorites]

He had never heard that the plant grows on its victim's grave. “There is no compulsion about the plant. Unless you want to take it, it will not make you.” (Dwight Jimmerson.)

That’s truly fascinating, zamboni!

Sounds very much as if the Seneca informant is talking about what we would call plants that are potentially addictive.

The only New World plant I can think of that he might be referring to is tobacco.

Are there any others?
posted by jamjam at 3:01 PM on January 7

Faint of Butt - I was taught that the sap of Queen Anne's lace was corrosive on the skin. It has hollow stems, which is how some kids found out (see clavdivs comment)

However, Queen Anne's lace is also an exellent resource for butterflies and other pollinators.

So grow it, just don't blow it, I guess.

(Also, typing your username gave me far more childish joy than it should have)
posted by B3taCatScan at 3:12 PM on January 7 [3 favorites]

I think Giant Hogweed is in the same pretty family. It can kill, if you're really a mess, but is mostly not actually deadly. I saw it in the UK, where it is a serious problem.
posted by theora55 at 3:12 PM on January 7 [6 favorites]

B3taCatScan: you’re describing giant hogweed, which looks very similar to queen anne’s lace, but has hollow stems and sap that causes phytophotodermatitis (dermatitis with additional sun sensitivity). Queen anne’s lace is a little smaller when full grown, stems look different, and has a tiny cluster of dark flowers in the middle of the flower head clusters. It isn’t toxic (some people claim it has herbal properties, even, though it doesn’t seem to be commonly used as such).
posted by eviemath at 3:24 PM on January 7 [4 favorites]

Giant Hogweed?

Turn and run!
Nothing can stop them
Around every river and canal their power is growing
Stamp them out!
posted by whatevernot at 3:24 PM on January 7 [9 favorites]

...the immortal words of Soe-crates, who said "I ate what?"
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:33 PM on January 7 [8 favorites]

Sounds very much as if the Seneca informant is talking about what we would call plants that are potentially addictive.

From other quotes in the article, it seems to be more about Haudenosaunee traditions and attitudes about suicide, that the plant itself is involved in the act.

There is an old belief that anyone who is contemplating suicide by taking muskrat root need not necessarily know the plant, for he can easily find it. [Cornplanter.] The plant is said to call and show itself. You can go right up to it in the dark. It has a strong smell. [Peter Doctor.] The old people say that muskrat root is like any other herbal medicine which you want. They believe that when you want it, it stands up there where it grows calling to you. That is why it is easy to find a medicine which you seek, especially this one with its strong odor. [Cornplanter.]

…

Dwight scouted the idea heard from other conservatives that the plant "grows inside the head of its victim until he takes it and then it comes up later from his grave." (Cornplanter, David Jack, and others.)

(I believe that conservatives is used here in the sense of traditionalist longhouse culture, and scouted in the obscure sense to reject as absurd; flout; scoff at.)

Nevertheless, Waugh's data of a generation ago say that these people believe waterhemlock compels the potential suicide to seek it, and that contrary to the usual attitude of medicinal herbs that stand willing to respond to man's call for assistance in curing, this one is willing to destroy him.

A preacher in the longhouse will say that it [the plant as symbolic of the sucide fixation] will grow in your head. By this is meant that it is willing to kill you . . . When eaten it will make a man crazy; he will die shortly. When the root is chewed and swallowed [it is believed that] it becomes whole again within the stomach. [David Jack; Waugh, 1912, No.4, p. 13.]

posted by zamboni at 3:46 PM on January 7 [8 favorites]

Near the house where we once lived in Vermont was a lane named Hemlock. It was hard to see, hidden by foliage. and narrow. Our kids called it Socrates Street.
posted by doctornemo at 4:11 PM on January 7 [8 favorites]

> a family of five rubbed the plant onto the skin and were poisoned

We had patches of this stuff around our property when I was growing up, like little groves of trees or bushes. The plant was about as tall as an adult, typically, and grew into somewhat dense thickets.

So . . . these little thickets of hemlock made a perfect place for us kids to tramp down paths and make little huts and hiding places.

We had no idea what the stuff was of course - just another weed.

So we went at them with gusto, smashing them down on the ground, walking on them (barefooted sometimes, for sure) and probably getting at least a little of the sap on us as we pushed through them to clear paths and clear out spaces to make our little playrooms and such.

Many decades later when I found out what the stuff really was, I was pretty horrified. Using one of the hollow tubes to blow air through (air gun!), play like a flute, or similar is just the kind of thing we might have thought of.

My friend got some kind of a rash from playing with and around the stuff, and maybe even got a bit sick. So the parents had a little chat among themselves and pretty soon we were banned from playing in those little thickets.

I guess that was a brush with death we managed to avoid only by pure dumb luck.

I'll just mention that around this same time my brother was born with rather severe birth defects. My mother always blamed it on paint fumes - she had been very engaged in painting the entire large house we were building, before she knew she was pregnant with him. So just at one of the most critical times in a fetus's development, she was inhaling VOCs and other such chemicals by the pint.

And she wasn't just painting a little bit - it was a huge house, many enclosed and unventilated places, more than one coat, many, many gallons of primer and paint, and she did most of it herself.

And what do you know: We sure didn't know it then, but the VOCs in paint - pretty low now but amazingly high then - are in fact now well known to cause exactly that type of birth defect. Especially when the exposure level is high and the exposure happens just at that point in pregnancy. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Point is: Exposure to poisons and toxic compounds is actually more common than we might think, and the consequences can be real.

So don't moan and groan when regulations about this kind of stuff are put into place - like low VOC paint, reduced toxicity solvents, the necessity for good ventilation and personal protective equipment when working with toxic substances.

Yes the different, safer products usually cost more and don't work quite as well. And protective measures are a pain in the @*# and slow you down. But they're not kidding - this kind of stuff can really kill you. Or worse.
posted by flug at 5:19 PM on January 7 [22 favorites]

was a lane named Hemlock


At YewTree Lodge in Baydon Heath, on the designated hour, sing a song of sixpence, pocket full of rye.
posted by clavdivs at 6:57 PM on January 7 [3 favorites]

Yikes. I have an ongoing war against regular old Poison Hemlock on my property (currently winning I think - but it’s a near weekly task between the long winter seasons to monitor for new sprouts and safely pull it - the first year we lived here I must have pulled at least 200 pounds of it - massive infestation - last few years just a few pounds in some specific spots)

And as bad as regular poison hemlock is … yeah glad it’s not this stuff
posted by inflatablekiwi at 9:34 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

Water hemlock is particularly dangerous because it looks very similar to wild carrots, so people foraging wild foods can accidentally eat it.

"Water hemlocks typically grow in wet, marshy places and are often confused with nonpoisonous members of the family, such as wild carrots or parsnips."

https://www.britannica.com/plant/water-hemlock
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:02 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

"Based on mortality data files maintained by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, from 1979 through 1988 (the most recent national data available) at least 58 persons in the United States died after ingesting a poisonous plant that was misidentified as an edible fruit or vegetable; inadvertent ingestion of water hemlock, as in the two cases in this report, caused at least five of these deaths. During 1989-1992, the American Association of Poison Control Centers recorded four deaths attributed to ingestion of poisonous plants (1-4). Water hemlock -- also known as beaver poison, children's bane, death-of-man, poison parsnip, and false parsley -- is in the same family as parsley, parsnips, celery, and carrots. It is similar in appearance to parsnips, smells like fresh turnips, and tastes sweet, but it is the most toxic indigenous plant in North America.

Although cicutoxin is present in all parts of the water hemlock plant, the root contains the highest concentration. Ingestion of a 2-3-cm portion of the root can be fatal in adults, and use of toy whistles made from the water hemlock stem has been associated with deaths in children. The plant is poisonous at all stages of development and is most toxic in the spring. Poisonings typically result from ingestions; however, cicutoxin also may be absorbed through the skin. "

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026056.htm
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:15 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

I seem to remember that if dairy cows eat water hemlock, the MILK can be lethal for humans, but I can't find the source I read.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 10:19 PM on January 7 [2 favorites]

This is true for a number of planets. I can't recall which plant it is, but when consumed by humans direct from the cow, causes what was called "milk fever." This killed Abraham Lincoln's mom.
posted by Atreides at 12:19 PM on January 8

Milk sickness:

Milk sickness, also known as tremetol vomiting or, in animals, as trembles, is a kind of poisoning, characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain, that affects individuals who ingest milk, other dairy products, or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot plant, which contains the poison tremetol.

Although very rare today, milk sickness claimed thousands of lives among migrants to the Midwestern United States in the early 19th century, especially in frontier areas along the Ohio River Valley and its tributaries where white snakeroot was prevalent. New settlers were unfamiliar with the plant and its properties. Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, may have been a victim of the poison. Nursing calves and lambs may have also died from their mothers' milk contaminated with snakeroot even when the adult cows and sheep showed no signs of poisoning. Cattle, horses, and sheep are the animals most often poisoned.

posted by zamboni at 1:17 PM on January 8 [6 favorites]

I know there must be something I was taught about this, I knew my mom loved Queen Anne's Lace, but I was told to beware that there was something else that looked similar but it was bad. It must have been this... I'm sure she told me what it was at the time, but Queen Anne's Lace is what my mom was looking for so that's what stuck with me.

Anyways. I buy my food from the store. Until the real apocalypse happens I guess.
I prefer Cannabis anyways.
posted by symbioid at 1:46 PM on January 8 [1 favorite]

I remember hearing dire warnings about oleander as a teen in Florida.
Beautiful floral hedge, but deadly. So much so that the stories had the feel of urban legends:

smoke from burning branches

roasting marshmallows on a stick
I think a Busch Gardens dolphin died after eating a flower which fell into its pool.

posted by cheshyre at 3:38 PM on January 8 [2 favorites]

symbioid: as noted above, the plant that is similar to (but not) queen anne’s lace is giant hogweed (not spotted water hemlock).
posted by eviemath at 3:48 PM on January 8

I think they’re both in the general parsley family though - it looks like the spotted water hemlock also has a similar appearance, but from the links in the fpp, grows in a different environment (marshy wet areas, versus queen Anne’s lace and giant hogweed which both grow in fields and ditches that get a bit drier)? Here’s a slideshow that has photos of both.
posted by eviemath at 3:54 PM on January 8

I have tons of poison hemlock. I was thinking I could beat it just by preventing it from blossoming and going to seed for a few years until the seed bank is depleted. So far that has not worked very well.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:32 PM on January 8