BOOK REVIEWS--NONFICTION
The Strangest Plants in the World
by S. Talalaj
©1994. Hill of Content Pub Co Pty Ltd;
ISBN 0855722053
Not all plants can be tamed indoors or contained in a quaint little cottage garden. Some plants are so unusual and bizarre they should only belong in a greenhouse freak show. Author S. Talalaj and his family traveled all over the world in search of some of the deadliest, smelliest and weirdest-looking plants on the planet.
In his book, The Strangest Plants in the World, plant descriptions are broken down into such captivating categories as "Plants used in Black Magic," "Incredible Flowers," "Giants of the Plant Kingdom," "Mysterious Mushrooms," "Bizarre Desert Plants," "Plants Worthy of Kings" and so on. And of course there are plenty of color photos to help you identify some of the more unique plants mentioned.
One of my favorite sections is called "Plants Used in Human Sacrifice." I learned that even one of the most common cacti, the Barrel cactus, (Echinocactus sp.) was used by the ancient Aztecs as a human sacrificial table to honor the sun god, Huitzilopochli! Ouch.
Another section, "Plants Used in Black Magic" explains the use of Datura sp. by voodoo priests in Haiti, in combination with puffer fish poison, to transform people into zombies.
This section also gives the ethnobotany and religious usage of Little Gallow Man, also known as Mandrake (Mandragora officinarum). Talalaj suggests that Jesus may have been given a "death wine" made from the mandrake before he was nailed to the cross so he would look dead when he wasn't. The wine mimicked death so it's "victims" could fake their termination and recoup somewhere else out of site. You may remember the same wine drank by a desperate young lady in Shakespeare's tragic play "Romeo and Juliet."
I'm a huge fan of any book that can give me historical and mythical backgrounds behind such plants as the fig tree, lotus, prickly pear, agaves, ginseng, etc. And the pages of this book are so saturated with weird theories of various plants that I simply could not put it down. To my housemates' dismay I would often yammer on and on about certain plants and how they were used to kill people, bring them back from the dead and cause psychic dreams. Anyone who wants an unusual reference book about plants will dig The Strangest Plants in the World.
-BB
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