The World’s Most Violent Plants

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The World’s Most Violent Plants

The world’s most violent plants won’t just kill the random fly who lands in the wrong place in the jungle; they’ll also kill you, your family, and your pets if touched or ingested. From the pitcher plants that can drown a rodent without breaking a sweat to those that can be ground up and snuck in your soup or sugar packet leaving you with some really unpleasant hours before your death, these plants are not to be messed with.

  • Nepenthes Attenboroughii – Giant Pitcher Plant

    Named after Sir David Attenborough, this large pitcher plant features a distinctive bell shape filled with fluid and upright lid, all of which is perfect to trap, drown, and kill insects and small rodents. While the jury is still out on whether this carnivorous plant actually does eat rodents, any plant with the capability to consume small animals – a capability this one has – is scary enough.

  • Aconitum Napellus – Monkshood

    From the “probably growing in a garden or wooded area close to your home right now” category, this pretty bluish-purple flower is often dried or just planted for decoration because it looks snazzy. The plant, however, also doubles as a highly lethal cardiac poison – so much so that once upon a time, it was used on spears and arrows to kill enemies and prey.

 

  • Dionaea Muscipula – Venus Fly Trap

    Commonly found on the East Coast of the United States, this killer plant looks as dangerous as it is. Featuring leaves filled with tiny little hairs, the Venus fly trap uses those hairs to detect prey, like insects and spiders, then closes its leaves around these tasty treats to trap them, just as its name suggests.

 

  • Utricularia Macrorhiza – Common Bladderwort

    Native to North America and Eastern Asia, the Utricularia macrorhiza or common bladderwort, survives on a balanced diet of tadpoles and crustaceans, both of which it murders as they are passing by in the water. The plant features a bunch of submerged bladders that can detect the motion of a nearby meal, then grab said prey to capture it and suffocate it inside the bladder. Definitely not the best way to die, if you’re a tadpole.

 

  • Nerium Oleander – Oleander Flower

    You know those gorgeous pink flowers that the your neighborhood greenthumb grows? For the love of god, don’t eat them or let your animals eat them! This alarmingly common garden beauty contains a handful of toxins that can cause nausea, a racing heart rate, excess salivation, poor circulation, seizures, coma, and death in both animals and humans. Basically, eat these pretty flowers, and your body self-destructs around you.

 

  • Drosera Glanduligera – Pimpernel Sundew

    Native to Australia, this scary looking threat doesn’t just trap and consume its prey with a highly unique combination of flypaper and snap traps, but it also has the ability to regenerate its tentacles should any be broken. So not only will it make insects and other prey stick to itself, but also catapult those yummy meals into the center of the plant for digestion.

 

  • Darlingtonia Californica – Cobra Lily

    Though pretty rare, this beast is called a cobra lily because it looks like a freakin’ snake, complete with fangs and a tongue. To make things worse, this carnivorous plant features lubricated pitchers to trap, confuse and digest insects. Oh yeah, and don’t even think about killing this killer plant with fire as it can regenerate its roots after a fire and grow again.

 

  • Cicuta Douglasii – Western Water Hemlock

    This perennial, which can grow and adapt to live in various wet climates, has few redeeming qualities and fewer practical uses. Cicutoxin can be found in the plant’s roots – while it’s extremely yummy for animals, ingestion of under 1% of body weight can lead to death within minutes. It’s equally as awful for humans, with the Cicutoxin attacking the central nervous system causing frothing at the mouth, incoordination, tremors, seizures, respiratory failure, and death!

 

  • Ricinus Communis – Castor Oil Plant

    Found in various varieties all over the world (maybe even in your backyard), the caster oil plant has a ton of really great uses, like producing a component for making caster oil and making this really nifty toxin called ricin. “Breaking Bad” fans will know all about ricin, but for those out of the loop, just a tiny amount of this powder is lethal – that is,after a week of horrible nausea, diarrhea, and seizures. Not fun!

 

  • Brugmansia – Angel’s Trumpets

    Available in a variety of colors, in case you have a favorite color to honor en route to becoming a zombie, the angel’s trumpets flower is as pretty as it is likely to make you go absolutely insane. Whether you eat the seeds, leaves, or pretty downward-facing trumpet flowers, this beast, ripe with various toxins, will cause confusion, diarrhea, hallucinations, a complete disconnect from reality, amnesia, and eventually death. Though sometimes used recreationally, in one instance, some poor misguided guy amputated a few of his own body parts (tongue and penis included) after just one cup of Brugmansia tea. Don’t do drugs, kids.

 

 

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