Botanical Curses and Poisons: The Shadow Lives of Plants

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I’ve rounded up a list of six botanical gothic books as a great entry point into the genre. While by no means an exhaustive list, with these books, you’ll be ready to plant your own gothic garden in no time. At a fundamental level, we are all sustained by plants, either from the oxygen they supply or from the food they can provide or by using them to build shelters. But we would be foolish to think of them as passive lifeforms that can accept being munched by any passing animal. They have developed sophisticated defences to stop them from disappearing down the gullet of a herbivore. These defences can vary from the spiked leaves, sour-tasting stems all the way to the utterly lethal parts of some plants that can kill an animal in a short space of time.

Botanical Curses and Poisons - Liminal 11 Botanical Curses and Poisons - Liminal 11

Kingfisher takes these elements from the original story and ratchets it up to ten million, with the most eerie fungi (and rabbits!) that I’ve ever read. Yes, fungi may not technically be a plant, but as Daisy Butcher mentions in her Evil Roots introduction, they largely operate in a similar thematic manner. So What Moves the Dead is not to be missed for anyone looking to read more botanical gothic works. 4. The Evil Garden by Edward Gorey The folklore elements in this book really brought it alive, beyond what I had anticipated and I really liked that it didn't just focus on the "celebrity" plants (as I described them to my mum when I told her I was reading this.) There was a lot focus on the folklore surrounding herbs, which I had no idea about and I found these parts really interesting and educational.

Plant Your Roots in Botanical Gothic

Fez Inkwright is an illustrator, author, and folklorist. Her greatest passions are botany, nature, primitive religions, and folklore, which flavor most of her work. For the past eight years she has produced work for children’s books, hand-drawn maps, and tattoo design, and now spends her time indulging in conservation work and writing. She lives in Bristol, UK, with two cats and several hundred bees. Available As: If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.’ – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland About the Author It is well known how plants have been used through time for healing and their medicinal properties, but as with all nature where there is good bad will surely follow. I don’t know if you’re a plant person like I am, but if you are, I highly suggest giving this book a read. It ended up being one of the highlights of my reading year so far.

Review: Botanical Curses and Poisons – A Cat, A Book, and A Review: Botanical Curses and Poisons – A Cat, A Book, and A

It’s rare for an encyclopaedia- style non-fiction book to be so moreish. But I was hooked. It definitely helps that I have a long term love of plants and folklore, sprouting from a childhood spent in wings chasing fairies through bluebell woods and a family full of avid gardeners and believers in magic. Books like this solidify my belief that while science makes us understand the effects of plants differently, the effects remain the same. Not to get phenomenological about it but, to me, if it feels like magic. Gamers never feel more present and alive than when their efforts come to fruition; GMs will weave crooked quests concerning the gathering of ingredients for poisons or curatives, players will brew concoctions of deadly verdance for the sake of good or ill. This is an essential companion for the darkly poetic, the riddler, the night elf. Imbue your Druids with dripping poison sap, your carefully whittled arrows with unspeakable banes, your potions with natural scourges. Create notable villains that offer vile physic - and wise player characters that plait thorns in their hair and might well have been raised in jagged-leaf nettle beds.My current WIP features a carnivorous plant that I invented. When I got to the carnivorous plant section, I learned that it would likely be a part of the sundew family and not entirely impractical in it's invention. This is what I mean by inspiration. There's a never-ending supply of fun ways to kill characters. Perfect for any mischievous writer. The reason tomatoes are included in this tome is worth the retail price. This book is a perfect mix of botany, folklore, and all things witchy. It is a very interesting read, especially for non-fiction, and is beautifully illustrated throughout. Some of these I know from childhood, I remember being told very sternly that I must never ever touch the glistening berries of the Deadly Nightshade that I used to see growing down the lane near my house. I grew to learn which plants could hurt when you fell off your bike into them and even contemplating touching a mushroom was forbidden. Thankfully in this beautiful book by Fez Inkwright, the knowledge of which plants to avoid has been brought bang up to date. Discover the folklore and history of our most toxic plants through this beautifully produced, gorgeously illustrated compendium.