A SURPRISING NUMBER of people ask me about whether this plant or that plant in my garden or theirs is poisonous. And so when I saw news from the New York Botanical Garden about a just-published, fully updated edition of a reference book on the subject, I thought, “Why don’t I learn more about this?” (Meaning, why don’t we learn more about this together?) To that end, I’ve invited one of its authors, botanist Michael Balick, to talk poisonous plants with us.
In collaboration with Rutgers University medical toxicologist Lewis S. Nelson, MD,Dr. Michael J. Balick, who is Vice President for Botanical Science and Director of the Institute of Economic Botany at the New York Botanical Garden, has written the new third edition of the“Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants.”
I asked him about plant chemistry—why some plants have the toxins they do–and what we’ve learned from, and about, those plants. And how did people figure out which are poisonous in the first place, anyhow?
Read along as you listen to the July 27, 2020 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
Plus: Enter to win a copy of the updated reference guide.
poisonous and injurious plants, with michael balick
Margaret: So welcome, Mike, it’s nice to have you back again.
Mike: It’s great to be here, Margaret.
Margaret: Yes. Last time we talked on the show, I think we were talking about your book on herbs, so this is a little bit different. Yes?[Laughter.]
Mike: Yeah. Well, similar and different. I think this also is a book that gardeners should have, because when you go into a nursery and you see a wonderful plant that
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