0:00

Guess what will what's that man? Go? Did you know if

0:02

there's a poison garden in northeastern England. It's

0:04

a full garden devoted exclusively

0:06

to poisonous plants. It sounds so evil,

0:08

but I kind of love it. So what's the purpose of this?

0:11

So when I first read about the garden, I imagine it

0:13

had been there for like hundreds of years, but

0:15

it's only about twenty years old. A

0:17

duchess inherited the gardens and she wanted

0:19

to do something super fun with them, and she thought what

0:22

could get kids more interested than a garden where

0:24

you're expressly forbidden from stopping and smelling

0:26

the flowers. So is it actually dangerous?

0:29

Yeah? It really is. So when I saw

0:31

a picture of some of the gardeners tending it, they were

0:33

basically head to toe and hazmat suits.

0:35

They wear gloves to protect their hands from boiling

0:37

up, and they covered their bodies. It's crazy,

0:40

But hearing about the castle, which by the

0:42

way, actually served as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter

0:45

movies, and this whole poison garden,

0:47

it made me realize I know nothing about the

0:49

secret world of dangerous and deceptive plants,

0:51

and so that's what today's show is all about. Why

0:53

don't we dive in? Hey

1:13

there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.

1:15

I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good

1:17

friend man Guestot Ticketers, and today we're

1:19

talking about some of the weirdest, funniest,

1:22

most dangerous plants out there. Kind

1:24

of a field guide to plants your mother wouldn't approve

1:26

of. Now I go, are you actually into

1:28

plants? I mean not really? So

1:30

I know your wife knows a ton about nature and plants,

1:32

and she has an environmental science degree. And my

1:35

grandfather was a botanist and Forrester, so

1:38

my mom knows a ton about plants. But I know

1:40

virtually nothing. It's like I've tuned

1:42

out everything they've been talking about all my life.

1:44

But you were the one that wanted to do this episode so

1:46

bad? What what? What was it that got too intrigued? That's

1:49

right. So our pal Austin helped me

1:51

research a bunch of plants for the episode. But I think

1:53

there are two things that really got me interested. So

1:56

the first was I read a little about Liz

1:58

Christie story. Do you know Liz Christie? Yeah,

2:00

So in the early seventies. Christie was this landscape

2:03

painter in New York City who saw these rundown

2:05

neighborhoods supposedly as canvases

2:07

that she could play with. So she'd go into these really

2:09

rough areas with seed bombs. She'd

2:12

like take a water balloon and fill it with a mixture

2:14

of seeds and water and compost, and

2:16

then she'd throw it into these barren places in

2:18

like the Bowery or whatever. And it

2:20

was kind of the first guerrilla gardening. I

2:23

love these sea grenades. I mean today they actually

2:25

make them with wildflowers. You can toss

2:27

them into fields and watch them attract honey

2:30

bees or whatever. Yeah, it's funny. So

2:32

my dad's friend actually had a patent on

2:34

sad that you could roll out with wildflowers

2:36

for the same purpose, but it never caught on, unfortunately.

2:39

But Liz Christie was amazing.

2:41

She did other things too, Like she'd sneak

2:43

into these rough areas with composts and

2:45

tomato and cucumber plants and wood and whatever,

2:48

and she just build vegetable gardens

2:50

where she couldn't end. Slowly, the

2:52

community started pitching in and harvesting the vegetables.

2:55

But when the authorities got wind of it, they

2:57

tried to stop it, but you know, Christie

2:59

was super savvy and she took her story to the press,

3:01

and eventually the city got on board.

3:04

Like they started leasing all these abandoned plots

3:06

to community gardeners for a dollar garden

3:08

and offering seeds and tools for cheap and

3:11

the movement really took off. Like in the late

3:13

eighties, there were supposedly eight hundred community

3:15

gardens in the city. Eight hundred. I mean,

3:17

that is an awesome story. So alright,

3:20

so, so what does this have to do with dangerous plants?

3:22

I know? So I'm off to tangents immediately. And

3:25

it didn't take long ago. But

3:28

I read a little about Christie and her seed bombs

3:30

and started thinking does nature do this at all?

3:32

And then I stumbled into a book called Wicked Plants

3:35

by Amy Stewart, which is so good and I'm

3:37

gonna be referencing it throughout the show. But there's

3:39

a chapter in it called Duck and Cover. Duck

3:42

and cover, Yeah, And the chapter is filled

3:44

with dangerous explosive plants like

3:46

get this. So here's what Stewart writes

3:48

about the gorse bush quote

3:51

on a hot day sitting near a gors can

3:53

be hazardous. The pods explode without

3:55

warning, ejecting seeds into the air with

3:57

a noise that sounds like a gunshot. This

4:00

is basically a plant that lures you in with flowers that

4:02

smell like scented coconuts or custard, but

4:04

then it takes pot shots that you when the weather

4:06

is right. And there are others like this too, like

4:08

like the seeds of a dynamite tree can shoot up

4:11

to like three feet away, or or

4:13

there's a dwarf mistletoe, which is actually

4:15

related to the plant from Christmas time, the one everybody

4:17

kisses under. Yeah, so it can actually shoot

4:20

seeds out at sixty miles per hour.

4:23

These plants are no joke. But the

4:25

most disgusting exploding plant I heard about

4:27

the squirting cucumbers. Just

4:29

by its name, that sounds so gross. Is

4:32

it shootout cucumbers? It rapid fire

4:34

or what what happens here? Yeah? What's

4:36

insane is that most of these plants are pretty

4:38

closely related to some normal plants. So the

4:41

squirting cucumber is actually related to cucumbers

4:43

and gourds and squashes. It's like in

4:45

that general family. But it's so much

4:47

grosser. And at first

4:50

I thought the squirting was about the wetness shooting

4:52

out, and it is. As Stewart writes,

4:54

the plants two inch long fruits are famous

4:56

for bursting when right, squirting a slimy

4:59

mucus like use and seeds almost twenty

5:01

feet away. You've said, squirting too much,

5:03

just starting to gross me. And it sounds like a vegetable

5:05

from like Nickelodeon or something. I mean,

5:07

the fact that it's slimy makes it so much more

5:10

gross, I know, But but it's dangerous

5:12

too. Apparently that veggie mucus will

5:14

sting your skin if it touches it, and it'll make

5:16

you vomit if you ingest it. But the

5:18

worst thing about the squirting cucumber if

5:20

you accidentally ingested in a drink, like

5:22

if that mucus shoots twenty ft into your beer

5:25

glass or whatever, the squirting cucumber

5:27

will give you the squirts. I

5:29

think we've talked enough about this one. I think it's definitely

5:31

worth avoiding. But honestly, I

5:34

can see why you're fascinated by this stuff.

5:36

And when you told me about this episode and the field

5:38

guide idea, I was thinking it'd be really

5:40

fun to organize some of these plants and the categories

5:43

of kids you might want to avoid on the playground.

5:45

You know, there's those explosive types definitely

5:47

sound like the emotionally volatile kids you'd

5:49

want to tiptoe around. But why

5:51

don't we start I don't know, why don't we start with the

5:53

pig pens. I mean, I want some of that stinky stuff

5:56

you can't help but avoid. Yeah,

5:58

the pig pens. I love it. So let me just

6:00

look through my notes because I know what I wanted to talk about

6:02

here. So I started listing off a few

6:04

favorites just because the smells are so amazing,

6:07

just in case you're like looking for a new cologne or whatever.

6:09

So the Stinky Gord smells

6:11

like armpits. That even has stinky

6:13

in its name. Yeah, it's actually called

6:16

the Missouri Gord or the fetid Cord, but

6:18

it smells pretty bad. Then you've got

6:20

the calorie pair, which is this tree

6:22

that smells like rotten fish and the

6:24

box would and when it gets too much sunshine,

6:27

it actually smells like cat pe Wow,

6:29

which is kind of funny, right. I Mean, I feel like so many

6:31

of the facts that you and I remember are about

6:33

things that smell good, you know, like the bent a

6:35

wrong. Is this half bear, half cat looking

6:37

thing that actually smells like buttered

6:40

popcorn? Yeah, I love that, But

6:42

this shrub actually feels like it belongs in a litter

6:44

box. But to me, the greatest pig

6:46

pen of them all, the plant that most needs

6:48

a bath has to be the corpse flower. All

6:51

right, So I take that bent a wrong fact back, because I know

6:53

we have discussed the corpse flower in the past that

6:55

it's it's kind of like the rock star plant for smelling

6:58

so bad. I know, people travel, we'll

7:00

see it bloom, not just because of how bad it smells,

7:02

but also because it doesn't bloom that often.

7:05

I think. I remember, it's huge, right, is it like seven ft

7:07

tall or something. Yeah, it's kind of magnificently

7:10

large and also really putrid. And

7:12

apparently when it blooms, the spadix, which

7:14

is this giant fleshy stem,

7:17

heats up to about ninety degrees to help

7:19

cook up and spread that aroma. And

7:21

actually I wrote down some of the things the corse flower

7:23

supposedly smells like according to observers,

7:26

So the most common description is quote

7:28

smells like death, which which feels

7:30

a little on the nose for something called the corse flower.

7:33

But if you've got a more discerning

7:35

palette, it might smell like well,

7:37

rotting flesh, hot garbage,

7:40

diapers, rotten fish,

7:43

cheese, smelly socks, and

7:45

also cabbage cabbage, which

7:48

actually might be the worst smelling of all of those

7:50

things. And I love that humans are so curious

7:52

about how bad something smells. I mean,

7:54

they immediately want to smell it too.

7:57

It kind of reminds me. You remember that old Tom Hank

7:59

sketch from S and All. He drinks that sip

8:01

of old milk and he's like, oh, this is so terrible,

8:03

we have to try it. The next person comes over

8:05

and tries it, says the same thing, and they just keep smelling

8:07

and eating these terrible things because they just

8:10

have to try it for themselves. But we kind

8:12

of do this naturally as humans for some reason.

8:14

Yeah, And to be clear, I have no interest

8:16

in traveling out of my way to smell a corpse flower. But

8:19

it also feels to me like the Harry Potter

8:21

jelly beans, you know, where they It could be

8:23

delightful or disgusting, and either way,

8:25

people are happy to have tried to. You know, my

8:27

kids love those things. Oh mine too. Some of them

8:29

are so gross. There were a couple I honestly

8:32

could not eat. Speaking of Harry

8:34

Potter, Actually do want to talk about the man breaks

8:36

and some of the other stuff from the books that exist in

8:38

real life. But before we do

8:40

that, can we do a quick section on I don't

8:42

know, let's call the Eddie Haskell plants.

8:45

Why Eddie Haskell? Well, these are the plants that

8:47

seem totally harmless and kind of like

8:49

goody two shoes, but can actually be bad

8:51

influences. Yeah, there there are a lot

8:53

of plants. I didn't realize we're dangerous. Like there's

8:56

the Laurel hedges, which always seems so running

8:58

the mill to me. They're actually in that point is in garden

9:00

we talked about at the top. Apparently when people

9:02

trimmed the hedges and take the clippings to the dump,

9:04

they've fallen asleep behind the wheel from the fumes.

9:07

Oh wow, All right, do you have anything that's maybe

9:09

a little more common than that though, Yeah, I've got a

9:11

couple. So rhubarb believes are apparently

9:13

toxic. There's this terrific story

9:15

from a Great Britain in nineteen seventeen when

9:17

a cook used a recipe she found in the newspaper.

9:20

It was in this wartime tips column, and

9:22

the combination of adding baking soda to the

9:24

rhubarb actually killed the minister she

9:26

was cooking for. It was super tragic.

9:29

But apparently the leaves can cause weakness and difficulty

9:31

breathing on their own and uh.

9:34

And then there are things like cashews, you know, but which I

9:36

know you and I have talked about before. But

9:38

cashews, while they're totally delicious, the

9:40

plant actually comes from the same family as poison

9:42

oak and ivy and you actually

9:44

have to steam them open to get to the tasty truths.

9:47

So even though you're getting them supposedly

9:49

row, they're actually coming to you a little cooked. But

9:51

you know, Amy Stewart tells this horrible

9:53

story of a little league game in Pennsylvania where

9:56

they sold some cashews that had pieces of

9:58

a shell in them, and this law huge

10:00

percentage of the little league parents ended up with rashes

10:02

on their arms and armpits and buttocks for

10:04

the fruit. I don't know. I don't know why buttocks

10:06

these people put in their cashews.

10:08

But my favorite deceptively nice plant that's

10:11

actually not worth hanging out with. Celery.

10:15

What's what's so bad about celery? Well, nothing

10:17

in small doses. But if you eat a pound

10:19

of it and then go to a tanning salt, the

10:22

celery will actually make you extremely sensitive

10:25

to UV light and it can pigment your

10:27

skin color and give you blisters. I mean, if

10:29

you're going tanning, go light on the cellery. It's

10:32

really good advice. I'm glad we're here for our listeners,

10:34

but that does sound awful. All right,

10:36

So we've done a few unhinged plants that will pop

10:38

off at you, some stinky plants

10:40

you'll probably know to avoid, and then those

10:43

sneaky, silent ones that are hiding a dark

10:45

side. So how about we save some of the liars,

10:47

cheats and Harry Potter plants for after

10:50

a break. So

10:57

at the top of the show, we were talking about this incredib

11:00

about Poisoned Garden, and we're lucky today

11:02

because we actually have the head gardener at

11:04

the Poisoned Garden. But Trevor Jones

11:06

welcomed to part time genius. Hello.

11:09

All right, so one of our favorite

11:11

things is just the sign to the entrance

11:14

that says, these plants can kill and

11:16

it's so ominous. What's the

11:18

philocity behind the garden and how do you choose

11:20

what plants go in there? The Duchess of Northumberland,

11:22

who created the hold of the garden, was

11:24

fascinated with poisonous plants. She

11:27

felt that children these days tend

11:29

to sit in front of computer screens

11:32

and look at them of our phones, but never get

11:34

out into the big wide world and experience

11:36

the environment that they're growing up in. So

11:39

she was aware that many children these days

11:41

don't know the harmful effects of plants,

11:45

especially native plants that grow here in the UK,

11:47

but also some exotic ones, and

11:49

so part of the reasoning for the Poison

11:52

Garden was to capture the imagination

11:54

of a child and teach them about

11:56

the harmful effects of plants

11:58

and how they would all kill you. So

12:01

we have storytellers that build

12:03

up a huge drama before anybody actually

12:05

enters, and you're warned not to

12:07

touch the plants, stand too close

12:09

to them, smell them, will definitely

12:12

not taste them, because they all have the ability

12:14

to kill you. Well, speaking of children, I'm

12:16

guessing these plants are kind of like children, and that you

12:19

can't pick a favorite, but we're still going to ask

12:21

you anyway, do you have a favorite plant? There?

12:23

I like to tell the story of acrono item.

12:26

It's a cottage garden plant. It's

12:28

her basis. It dives down the winter, shoots

12:31

up again in the spring, and it has fantastic,

12:34

deep blue flowers. It's often called monkshood

12:37

because the flower looks like an old fashioned

12:39

monkshood. Now, the whole of that plant

12:42

is poisonous, but we relate

12:44

it to an up to date murder story because

12:47

in two thousands and ten, a

12:49

woman called lack Finder Singh who

12:51

had fallen out with her lover. He

12:53

had kicked her out of the home that they shared,

12:55

so to get revenge on him, she

12:58

found some aconite the police

13:01

seed, and she crushed it up and

13:03

then went back into the house and third

13:05

into his curry which was in the fridge.

13:08

He then returned home from work with his new

13:10

girlfriend and ad to curry,

13:13

and he died within thirty six hours. And

13:15

when toxicology reports came back,

13:18

they said that it was all down to aconite

13:20

and poisoning, and they chased it back

13:22

to luck Finder and she's now in prison.

13:25

So when did it occur to you that being a poison

13:27

gardener could be a real job. Well,

13:30

I came to Annick ten years

13:32

ago and I've never

13:34

heard about a collection of poisonous

13:36

plants, although I've been in gardening all my days

13:39

until I got to Annek and then the

13:41

fascination that is all about

13:43

the Poison Garden started to infect

13:46

me as well, and so I was very keen on poisonous

13:48

plants. And I'm curious, how did the Harry Potter

13:50

movies filming there change admissions to

13:52

the garden. We've had a spinoff from how

13:54

He Potter film because

13:57

in how He pos talked about Man Drake, and

14:00

so we grow Man Drake in the Poison Garden

14:02

because there's a lot of superstition around

14:04

Man Drake. At one time that was

14:06

more prized than gold for

14:09

its magical properties, and even

14:11

today people will buy mandrake

14:14

roots and chop them up. It's supposed to be a very good

14:16

affle dizzy act, but I can't guarantee you now.

14:18

But there's a lot of superstition about the plant.

14:21

And the plant has a very

14:24

strong, thick cap

14:26

roots very much like a carrot, but

14:29

it forks, so it's often

14:31

have two stems to it,

14:33

so when it gets dug up, it can often look

14:35

like a little man with two legs

14:38

and two arms, and they say that it's

14:40

the devil himself. And if you dig

14:42

a mandrake up, you can actually hear it's screaming

14:45

as it comes up out of the ground. And then

14:47

when you see it, it does look like a little

14:49

like a little man. And so if

14:51

you do that, you're cursed. So

14:54

the stories goes. If you want to get rid

14:56

of your man drake used to have to tie a

14:58

rope around the manre it itself and

15:01

then around donkey or a dog. Kick

15:04

the donkey or the dog and they would run

15:06

off and they would pull an and rake up

15:08

and as it screamed, so they

15:10

heard the screaming, they were the culprit because

15:12

they pulled it up. The donkey or the dog

15:14

was cursed and you survived to tell the tale.

15:17

What's the best thing you overhear the gardens?

15:19

Like, what's the most satisfying part of the job

15:21

in the poison garden. It's

15:23

relating the stories that we

15:25

tell to everyday occurrences

15:28

we grow in the poison garden.

15:30

We grow just common laurel and a

15:32

lot of our visitors will grow low as a

15:34

hedge. It's very very common evergreen

15:36

plant, but it has the ability

15:39

to kill you, believe it or not, because

15:41

the laurel leaves um produce

15:44

cyanide. So when you cut your laurel

15:46

hedge, if you accept up the clippings

15:48

and put them into your car to

15:50

take them to the dump, as you

15:52

sit in your car, so the cyanide

15:54

will start to build up in the car. That

15:56

then affects your nervous system and it's starts

15:59

the brain of oxygen. And so many

16:01

people don't be like that, and lots of our

16:03

visitors have told us that they have start

16:05

exactly that they's driven to

16:07

the dump with these cuttings in the back of

16:10

their car and they've got very light headed

16:12

and one gentleman he is admitted to

16:14

crashing into a lamp post. It

16:16

was all down to cyanide poisoning.

16:19

What's Trevor, I can't wait to get over to the gardens.

16:21

This has been fascinating and thanks so much for joining

16:23

us on Part Time Genius. Well pleasure, welcome

16:39

back to Part Time Genius. Today we've been thumbing

16:41

our way through a field guide of plants. Your mother

16:43

wouldn't approve of I knew all

16:45

this talk of plants and poisons has reminded

16:48

me of that Debora Bloom story and the roots of

16:50

c s I. You know, that's actually one of

16:52

my favorite stories. But would you mind telling it to our listeners.

16:54

So Debora Blooms, this wonderful journalist who

16:57

wrote The Poisoner's Handbook. But in

16:59

it she tells this great story from Belgium.

17:01

It's about poisoning by nicotine in the

17:03

eighteen fifties. So basically

17:05

at the time no one knew how to detect plant

17:08

alkaloids from dead bodies. And

17:10

the way she tells that, there's a French prosecutor

17:12

and a famous death by morphine case, and

17:15

he confirms this in the trial and in

17:17

the courtroom he said, let us tell

17:19

would be poisoners, use plant

17:21

poisons, fear nothing. Your crime

17:23

will go unpunished. There's no physical

17:26

evidence, it cannot be found. I

17:28

mean he was talking from a point of frustration.

17:30

But at least one person took his advice.

17:33

It was the Count of Boucarmi. So

17:35

this is one of those classic cases of people killing

17:37

their relative for inheritance, and the Count

17:39

and Countess lived extravagantly. They

17:42

were basically like the FitzGeralds of their time, throwing

17:44

outrageous parties and living beyond their

17:46

means. So they needed more cash,

17:49

and they knew that when the count as sickly brother passed

17:51

away, they'd inherit his loot, But

17:54

it turns out he wasn't dying fast enough,

17:56

so they decided to speed up the process.

17:58

So the count started experience ending with nicotine

18:00

poisoning. He had this converted laundry

18:03

shaw that he turned into a lab and claimed

18:05

he was using it to mix up perfumes.

18:07

But when his servants peek in, he's extracting

18:10

things from plants and has vials and burners

18:12

set up in there, and suddenly tiny

18:14

dead animals starts showing up left outside

18:17

the lab. I mean, they saw dead birds,

18:19

rabbits and several other animals, which

18:22

was of course suspicious to them, and

18:24

so they take note of this. And then the couple

18:26

had their in law over for dinner, and there's more

18:29

suspicious stuff that happens. Then they

18:31

send the kids away for dinner to eat elsewhere,

18:33

which is pretty unusual for them. The

18:35

Countess insists on ladling out the food

18:38

herself and distributing the plates herself

18:40

and the servants are pointedly sent

18:42

away, and then during the course of the

18:44

meal, her brother passes out with a thud.

18:47

The count and countess claim it's a stroke, but

18:50

something fishy has clearly happened,

18:52

and they rinse his throat with vinegar and burned

18:54

the dead man's clothes and basically get rid

18:56

of all the evidence, which sounds so

18:59

shady, right, I know, But here's the genius

19:01

of it and why plant poisoning used to work

19:03

so well. The nicotine is made

19:05

up of super simple organic materials.

19:07

It's just carbon and nitrogen and hydrogen

19:09

and you know, all the stuff that's in the air and

19:11

in our bodies. But it's also a

19:14

super effective poison that works astonishingly

19:16

well and at high speeds when it's in high

19:18

doses. And so the servants

19:20

report the case, and the police knew who did

19:22

it, but have zero proof. Then

19:25

Belgian's most famous chemist, Jeane

19:27

sarves Stas, who spends three months

19:29

figuring out how to pull alkaloids from preserved

19:32

tissues, and he finally uses the

19:34

proof to convince a judge of their guilt, and

19:36

the justice is swift, but

19:38

The crazy part is that while Stas's process

19:41

has been updated, according to Bloom,

19:43

it's still used in toxicology labs

19:45

today. Crazy. It really is kind of the rut

19:47

of CSID. But what's the moral of all this? I

19:50

guess the moral would be, you know, don't use

19:52

plants to murder your friends and family. And

19:54

maybe more than that, don't murder.

19:57

That would be that the moral don't murder does

20:00

like smart words to live by, and uh, you

20:02

know what's funny. Amy Stewart makes this

20:04

point in the book that poisons are all around

20:06

us, like a lot of common house plants

20:08

are poisonous. The peace lily, the philodendron.

20:11

I mean, we had both of those in our

20:13

home growing up. And the truth is you probably

20:15

wouldn't eat much of either because they'd make your mouth

20:17

burned before you'd scarf down too much. Well,

20:19

what's interesting is that most house plants were

20:22

never chosen for their safety. They were chosen

20:24

because they thrive year round in a fifty to

20:26

seventy degree climate, you know, the

20:28

same temperature as our homes, which is why

20:30

many of them are actually tropical plants from South

20:32

American and African jungles. I mean that's something

20:34

I never considered. Yeah, me either. But

20:37

I think we've gotten a little off topic here, so let's

20:39

let's get back to some of those plants your mom doesn't

20:41

want you playing with. I have to be I

20:43

love that squirting cucumber plant. You

20:45

got any more like that? Yeah? So

20:48

there are two other plants I flagged. The first one is

20:50

called the African milk tree, and it's

20:52

disgusting because if you don't prune it carefully,

20:54

it can squirt. The African milk sapp at

20:56

get big with the squirts. I guess you took that requests

20:59

the most terrifying. And there's

21:01

this one scientist who's pruning his tree and he

21:03

got it right in the eye and

21:06

he used to have like vision in the eye,

21:08

and then he went legally blind and that

21:10

sounds terrible. But after a

21:12

rigorous course of sailing that he gave himself for ten

21:15

days, his eye went back to being, which

21:17

I thought was crazy. That it causes this temporary blindness

21:19

that you can come back from. Wow, that's wild, all

21:22

right. And and the other one, Yeah, so this one's

21:24

totally amazing and also temporarily

21:26

takes away from one of your abilities. But it's called

21:29

the dumb cane. As Amy Stewart

21:31

puts a quote, this tropical South American

21:34

plant is well known for its ability to temporarily

21:37

inflame vocal cords, leaving people

21:39

completely unable to speak. And that

21:41

does sound like something out of Harry Potter, and we did promise

21:43

to talk about her, definitely, So it's

21:45

like straight out of the Charms and Potions books

21:47

or any of Professor Sprouts lessons. But before

21:50

we get into that, the plant diffian

21:52

Bakia has one more unusual side

21:54

effect. In the Caribbean, men used

21:56

to chew it as a male contraceptive, really

21:59

because they ust their ability to smooth talk women

22:01

or something. No, it actually has nothing to do

22:03

with them losing their voice. There's some sort of historical

22:06

preparation that we don't know about that people

22:08

used to use to make sure they didn't have kids,

22:10

and it was kind of like an early version of

22:12

the male pill. It supposedly lasted forty

22:15

eight hours. But what's weirder is

22:17

that the Nazis actually started playing with the plant

22:20

in the hopes that they could make certain populations sterile,

22:22

and luckily they could never get enough of the plant

22:24

to really experiment on. That's really creepy,

22:27

but I do love the idea of plants

22:29

with superpowers. All right, what other Harry

22:31

Potter type plants. Well, there's also

22:33

the Man Drake, which Trevor talked about earlier

22:35

on at Hogwarts. Mandrakes are one of those plants

22:37

that are always wailing and whining. Would they get

22:40

pulled out of the soil and they shriek at

22:42

these high pitched volumes. But I had

22:44

no idea. That was like a myth from medieval

22:46

times, And in fact, Austin told me that

22:48

the preferred method for uprooting Man Drake was

22:50

to use a rope and tie it to a dog

22:53

and then just leave, and when the

22:55

dog finally pulled away, the man Drake would get

22:57

uprooted. But there was this idea

22:59

that even the dog might die from doing the uprooting,

23:02

which I just think that's the worst possible way. Yeah,

23:06

let's not do it that way. So

23:08

um any Stewart actually has another story about

23:10

the plant, and that's that Hannibal used to leave Mandrake

23:13

confused wines for his enemies, which

23:15

would intoxicate them and give them hallucinations,

23:17

and then you'd come back to easily defeat them when they

23:19

were drunk and drugged. Of course, the fact that

23:22

he used to ride and on giant elephants probably

23:24

only made those hallucinations were so I'm guessing.

23:27

Yeah. So there's some other plants that get shout outs

23:29

in Harry Potter, like monks Hood, which is

23:31

actually a toxic plant that gardeners need

23:34

gloves to handle. But I kind of love the

23:36

plants that cure things. And one I

23:38

found completely fascinating is the ordeal

23:40

beans. Oh I know about these? Aren't these the

23:42

truth telling beans? Like I think

23:44

I read that if you swallow the beans and vomited,

23:46

you were considered innocent, but if you ate

23:48

the beans and died, then you were guilty.

23:51

Yes, this perverse logic, and it was kind of

23:53

like at the Salem witch trials, where if

23:55

you're thrown in a river and drown, you were innocent, but

23:57

if you floated you were definitely a witch. But

24:00

doesn't. What's fascinating about these beans to me. What's

24:02

crazy is that the beans are actually an antidote

24:04

or a cure for mandrake poisoning, Like

24:07

if you've been poisoned by man drake in

24:09

an emergency room, they can actually use these

24:11

beans to restore heartbeats and snap people back

24:13

into consciousness. That is incredible.

24:15

All right. So, so we've covered the Eddie Haskell's

24:18

the stink weeds, and now we've covered some of the

24:20

plants your mom might worry or two into

24:22

fantasy or something. I guess those are the uh

24:24

let's call those the comic concept. But I

24:27

think it's time to get to talk about one we've been waiting

24:29

for. And these are the bad boys of plant

24:31

life, the liars and the cheats

24:33

and the overseex plants that are a little too

24:35

salacious for their own good until I'm ready

24:37

for this, right all right, So before we get to

24:39

those, how but we take a little break,

24:49

all right, man. This is a special treat today

24:51

because usually our quiz takers join us by

24:54

phone, but today our guests are here

24:56

in studio with us. We have the

24:58

hosts of one of my favorite shows called Food Stuff

25:00

here at How Stuff Works, Annie Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum.

25:02

Welcome to part time Genius. Thanks for having

25:04

yeah, thank you so much. All right, So,

25:07

again, like I mentioned, this is one of my favorite shows

25:09

and it's so fun because it's not just

25:11

history and science it's like all of

25:14

this combined in a way that I haven't heard many

25:16

food shows doing. And I was curious to hear from

25:18

you guys. You know what gave you the idea to

25:20

start the show? Well, first of all,

25:22

all hush and and

25:24

second of all, Um, I don't know. We love food.

25:28

Yeah, we're kind of super nerds about it.

25:30

Yeah. Annie in particular, I

25:32

think the day that I realized that I wanted her on

25:34

the show, Um, I came to her, it was like, please, we

25:36

had the show. I need a co host. And it's so terrific.

25:40

Was we were out in in Austin at south By

25:42

Southwest and she had planned

25:44

months in advance, like and like put

25:47

in orders for barbecue places and like had

25:49

this entire map of everywhere that we needed to go

25:51

to eat in the sea and I was like this one,

25:53

Like this is I call

25:56

it maximizing. I like to maximize

25:58

my experience when I visited city,

26:01

and uh, we had such

26:03

a good time. We tried so much good food. Yeah.

26:06

We get so excited about all the research because

26:09

every episode has a fact that I just

26:11

would never have never have guests. Yea,

26:13

it's so interesting through food

26:15

science. I feel a little bit less like a you

26:17

know, mad scientist in training. Right,

26:19

how do you guys come up with the topics? Obviously there are a lot

26:22

of foods out there, but how do you decide which ones

26:24

to focus on? We do get a lot

26:26

of requests in from listeners and those

26:28

are tremendously helpful, like stuff that we wouldn't

26:30

necessarily have thought to do. But also

26:32

it's just like we'll run across stuff.

26:35

You know, what was it this week? Aspects? Aspects?

26:38

Oh, I went on such a rabbit hole about

26:40

as

26:44

it's a meat gelatine. Um, these were really

26:46

big in like the nineteen sixties or so. It's a jelly

26:48

mold that's savory, made of usually

26:50

like bone broth a k A stock as they call

26:52

it in the industry, and that that'll set up into

26:55

a good solid mold and it's usually got like bits

26:57

of meat and egg and vegetable

26:59

and off in it. It's they

27:02

look they look like they're from a hell dimension.

27:06

Yeah, I mean, I mean they're supposedly delicious.

27:09

They made me laugh alout just looking at the

27:12

picture. Highly recommends

27:15

to go down a similar rabbit hole. Well, for our

27:17

listeners, there have been great episodes on Bloody

27:19

Mary's Fried Chicken, Honey, the Weird

27:22

History of the Graham Cracker, which is I expected

27:24

it to be a great episode and it was so

27:27

so it's always a lot of fun. Part of the reason we wanted

27:29

to have you on today though, as you did uh

27:31

an episode recently about the

27:33

tomato and you know we're doing

27:35

this episode on dangerous and poisonous

27:37

plans. You guys have talked about

27:39

how Europeans for for a long time

27:42

thought that tomatoes were poisonous. I thought it

27:44

gets you guys to explain why that

27:46

was certainly wealthy Europeans. I

27:48

think that the poorer folks were just like, it's a food,

27:50

you should eat it, right, Well,

27:53

wealthier Europeans like to eat off of these

27:55

fancy pewter plates, especially at

27:57

the time this was around the f fifteen or sixteen hundreds

28:00

m h. And tomatoes have

28:02

a lot of acid, and so the acid

28:04

would cause um, lead to

28:06

leak out of the pewter plates

28:09

and could lead to lead poisoning, which can lead to death. Yeah,

28:13

a legitimate reason for being afraid.

28:16

Also, um, they were kind of

28:18

tomatoes were kind of poorly classified or

28:20

unfortunately classified. Yeah, correctly

28:22

classified but as a night

28:25

shade, which is a type of poisonous

28:27

plant in some cases. Yes.

28:29

Uh. And from that, yes,

28:32

um, they were called um lego

28:35

persicons. That's how they were classified, which

28:37

translates the Greek word is wolf

28:40

peach. Right. And

28:43

part of the reason they were called that is because

28:45

they were in the night shaded family and

28:48

related to wolf spane, which

28:50

people thought at the time could summon

28:52

were wolves. Oh nice, So you got

28:54

to talk about were wolves. That's pretty

28:56

cool. Yeah, that's so exciting. Yeah, as

28:59

a love of the title of episode, right, it was you say,

29:01

Tomato, I say, and

29:05

wolf spaine in nightshade

29:08

do have hallucinogenic qualities. So

29:10

so it's easy to see where people might think that where wolves

29:12

are involved, if they're hanging out around too much

29:14

wolf spain. Right. But that is really interesting

29:16

to imagine that that those that had much

29:18

less money wouldn't have thought of them as as

29:21

being poisonous because they wouldn't have had that

29:23

introduction of yeah, so the fancy

29:25

pewter plates, and they wouldn't have gotten that taxonomy lesson.

29:27

So yeah, yeah, rich

29:30

people would keep them on their tables as like

29:32

ornaments, as like goth table decoration,

29:35

like they thought that they were poisonous and they would

29:37

have them as these table centerpieces. Yeah,

29:41

well, very cool. That that made us think we should have you

29:43

guys on the show. We've been wanting to have you here anyway,

29:46

so it was a good excuse to get you here to play

29:48

this very very important quiz. What quiz are we

29:50

going to have these guys play today? Super important?

29:52

It's called real name of a mushroom or a band

29:54

that's playing south By Southwest this year, so

29:57

they're the south By Connection again. So

30:01

there are tons of names of mushrooms that are

30:03

really quirking strange, like scurfy

30:06

twiglet and fingered candle snuff

30:08

names of actual mushrooms. Does that make you hungry?

30:11

Yeah, so we thought

30:13

it'd be fun to have you come on and work together.

30:16

We're gonna have you work together because your teammates too.

30:18

I can see how you do in a five question

30:20

quiz. Okay, number

30:22

one, Potato earth Ball.

30:25

Is this a real mushroom or the name of

30:27

a band playing at south By Southwest

30:29

this year? Potato

30:32

earth Since since it's

30:34

got the earth element to it, I would say

30:36

I would say it's an actual mushroom. I agree.

30:39

Yeah, Wow, these guys are good, right.

30:42

It's a holy puffball mushroom? Is

30:47

that from a description? The

30:49

sexy shape of potatoes? Sees

30:56

there? One for one? Number two snake

30:59

tongue truffle club that

31:03

sounds like a bar option.

31:08

Um, I think

31:10

I think drinking was involved in that one, though, So I'm

31:12

going to go with band. Do you would you

31:14

agree? Yeah? I

31:16

think that's a band. I'm glad we stumped him

31:18

on at least one. Well,

31:21

it was named in the UK, so there might have been some drinking

31:24

in It actually looks

31:26

like a big snake tongue sticking out of the ground. Number

31:31

three a yucky duster,

31:34

yucky duster, and

31:38

he's making the most amazing face right now. I'm

31:41

going to say that either if it is a band,

31:43

it's also poisonous. I'm gonna

31:45

go with mushroom. Oh wow,

31:48

we got him again. Dang, it's

31:51

a band. It's a four person band that sounds completely

31:53

different depending on which member wrote the song. Oh

31:58

all right, here we go. You still have as for the big Price.

32:01

Number four pancake Crust. We're

32:06

trying so hard to not just like snort after

32:09

every name we're hearing. Yeah,

32:12

oh goodness. I mean

32:14

that could certainly describe the skin on the

32:17

top of I mean, I feel like I've seen that thing before.

32:19

Well, I'll trust your judgment on that one.

32:23

It's a real funny say infects a stone fruit

32:25

trees. Nicely done. Okay,

32:28

this is the big one for the big prize. Number

32:30

five, Delicate Steve, Delicate

32:33

Steve mushroom or

32:36

a banded south By Well, delicate

32:39

Steve certainly sounds like a band that

32:41

I I've seen four It

32:44

sounds like some band members that I think

32:47

many different Steves. They're all

32:49

delicate. They're all delicate. Sorry

32:51

about its Steve's So they're going with

32:53

band? What do you think? You're right? It's a band from New

32:55

Jersey, which shouldn't be confused with a slow

32:57

Steve. A band from Berlin that's also playing

33:00

out going

33:02

there, oh man. So,

33:06

so how did they do today? Mango? They did so

33:08

great, we're gonna give him a prize. So today they're

33:10

going home with there's an actual

33:13

prize of

33:15

Rockabye, Baby Lullabye renditions of

33:17

justin timber Lakes justin

33:21

timber Lake c D. I had on my desk, oh Man,

33:23

it's the only one. Good luck finding a place

33:25

to play a CD. Yeah,

33:27

I have to fight over this. Yeah, definitely,

33:30

that's all right. Well, I hope all our listeners will check

33:32

out food Stuff. It's a terrific show. Lauren

33:34

and Annie, thanks so much for joining us. Oh, thank you guys

33:36

so much. Thank you for having us so

33:51

mago. We were just about to talk about some of the liars

33:53

and the sexpots and you know, the plants your

33:55

mother definitely doesn't want you hanging out

33:57

with. So who's your favorite liar

34:00

in the mix? Yeah, there's definitely

34:02

some crafty greenery out there, just spinning

34:04

lies and trying to get their seed into the wild. But

34:06

I think my favorite ones are the ones that trick insects.

34:09

So there's an orchid that's apparently so

34:11

sexy that wasts tried to mate with it, and

34:14

it isn't just romance. It's like aggressive

34:17

wasp sex, and the dumb male

34:19

wasps gets so excited they get covered in pollen

34:21

and then move on to another orchid, spreading the

34:23

pollen along the way. But the best and weirdest

34:26

part is that the orchids are so good at

34:28

their deception that male wasps actually prefer

34:30

the flowers to females, and sometimes

34:33

they'll leave a female wasp mid population

34:35

because the flower seems that much more appealing.

34:37

So I don't think you said, what what it's called. What's it called?

34:39

Yeah, it's called the tongue orchid, which

34:41

is which is gross. And wow,

34:43

that's a good one, all right, So what else you got, Well,

34:46

this one's hilarious. While impersonating

34:48

an insect is one thing, impersonating a piece

34:50

of dung is a totally different level. But

34:53

that's what the restiness say. I don't

34:55

think I'm pronouncing that right, But it's from South Africa

34:58

and it does this when it drops seeds that look suspiciously

35:00

like antelope dung on the ground. Wow,

35:02

So they just are they marking their territory. It's

35:05

so much more than that. So basically, the seeds attract

35:07

dung beetles, which just saunter up the seed

35:10

and roll it around. And when they decided

35:12

to burrow into it, instead of getting a delicious

35:14

treat, they discovered that they've been tricked into planning

35:17

a seed in the ground. All right, that's

35:19

pretty genius. But that's a common survival strategy,

35:21

right, Well, I mean it's common enough that has a name.

35:24

It's called fecal mimoric carrey. Alright,

35:26

so we probably need to wrap this up it. How about you send

35:28

us off with one last plant that baffled

35:30

you. Yeah, so I think I have just the one.

35:33

So here's one that mother definitely wouldn't

35:35

approve of, which scientists are just completely

35:37

delighted by. It's an orchid called

35:39

the halka glossom amasanium,

35:42

which is this bisexual flower. Well this sounds

35:44

juicy, okay, go on, Yeah, so basically

35:47

the plant works against gravity to pollinate

35:49

itself. But let me just quote new scientists because

35:51

they do a way better job of explaining it. Although

35:54

many plants self fertilize, a rare orchid

35:56

that grows on tree trunks in China takes the process

35:59

to hitherto unknown heights through

36:01

a gymnastic feat never seen

36:03

before in plants. It bends its pollen

36:06

containing male another round through

36:08

a full circle before jabbing it into

36:10

the female stigma to complete fertilization

36:13

at sixty days. The act takes even

36:15

longer than tantric sex. This basically

36:17

flower point. I kind of feel dirty listening to that. I

36:20

mean, what's crazy is that the plant can basically self

36:22

pollinate without any of the standard means

36:24

insects when gravity, rain,

36:27

none of that. It's kind of insane that it does

36:29

it all on its own. But you know one thing we could

36:31

never do on our own, I do the part time genius

36:33

fact off. Yeah, let's go for it. M

36:48

R. Did you know that you don't need those little flower

36:50

chemical packets to make your flowers perk

36:52

up? A little viagora will make the flower

36:55

stems straighten up fast. According

36:57

to Business Insider, auguste, teen

37:00

seventy seven set the record for the most flowers

37:02

sold in the US on a single day. What happened?

37:04

It was the day after Elvis passed away. Oh that's

37:07

crazy, all right? What did you know that venus

37:09

fly traps amid a fluorescent blue light

37:11

to attract bugs. Also,

37:13

they're the official state carnivorous plan of

37:15

North Carolina? I mean, what else is

37:18

North Carolina going to give it to? Speaking of carnivorous

37:20

plants, did you know figs aren't considered vegetarian.

37:23

Figs are pollinated by wasps and then the flower

37:25

captures and traps them. So there's wasps

37:28

that's been coughton digested in most figs eat,

37:30

which is funny to think that figs aren't vegetarian

37:33

while oysters might be. I mean, according to

37:35

some vegans and vegetarians at least, it's because

37:37

they don't experience pain. But that's not my fact.

37:39

That's not the fact. Did you know that plants

37:41

can hear water? I

37:43

thought I thought that was just like an old wives tale. I

37:46

used to think that too, but scientific American

37:48

and a professor from Australia proved me wrong.

37:50

Was Professor Monica Gagliano, and

37:52

she devised an experiment with pea seedlings

37:55

where plants inch their way towards pipes,

37:57

and she theorized that while the plants later followed

38:00

moisture grades, they were initially drawn to

38:02

the water sources by sound waves from

38:04

inside the pipes. That's amazing. So

38:06

I'm gonna have to let you take home the trophy today. Thanks,

38:09

and I think that's it for today's episode of Part Time

38:11

Genius. Thanks so much for listening. Thanks

38:26

again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production

38:28

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38:30

several brilliant people who do the important things.

38:32

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38:37

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38:39

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38:41

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38:44

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38:46

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38:48

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38:50

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38:53

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39:01

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