Reviews for Common poisonous plants and mushrooms of North America

The average rating for Common poisonous plants and mushrooms of North America based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-12-22 00:00:00 Edward Lewis Love this book! I don’t have any extended experience with plants and vegetables beside breathing the precious oxygen that they produce so this book is perfect. I recognized some of the plants in there, some I have no idea is poisonous. Such a great educational book.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-09-28 00:00:00 Jay Baraban "This is a toxic alkaloid. And so is this. And so is this." Super fascinating subject, but there has to be some kind of better way of talking about poisonous plants than just listing all of them in alphabetic order. I would have enjoyed more general discussion about the evolutionary role of toxins and the phylogenetic relationships between different poisonous species (it was touched on somewhat, and those parts I liked the best -- I just wish there had been more of them). The mushroom section was good because of the way the amanitas were covered, and their relationships between species discussed to give us a broader vision of the mushroom world. But after the first third of the book, it sort of just devolved into a list of species with increasingly similar traits, with increasingly less discussion. What about the relationship between potatoes and nightshade? Why solanine? What are cyanogenic glycosides doing in almost every kind of fruit pit? I think perhaps any problems I have with this book are problems that I have with most science books that aren't really intended for scientists: a lot of information is held back because it's seen as "too technical" for a layperson to be interested in... But I think it's all about how you frame the information, and general audiences should be given more credit (especially if they're already picking up a science book). This might be a good resource for people writing novels, or for DMs working alchemy into their RPGs, and perhaps a jumping point for people more interested in the science to look for other more specific books.