Not all flowers are as sweet and innocent as they appear. Flowers with typically bright and beautiful also have a dark side. They may look harmless enough, but certain flowers can harbor some of the most deadly poisons know. Get to know about the 10 beautiful but deadly flowers. These are some most beautiful flowers that kill in horrifying ways.
Top 10 Most Beautiful But Deadly Flowers:
10. Oenanthe crocata / Hemlock Water Dropwort
This plant is considered as one of the most poisonous plant in United Kingdom. And also very abundant along most of waterways throughout the country. Oenanthe is a tuberous herb of shallow water in the banks of rivers, canals, lakes, ponds and wet woodlands. This flower is commonly known as; “Hemlock water dropwort”, “Dead man fingers” or “Dead tongue” and has an interesting property.
Of course it is lethal, but the killer toxin it has which called oenanthotoxin forces you to a death grin called as “sardonic grin” by relaxing the muscles around your lips even when you are in the peak of fatal convulsions. The flower smells like very sweet parsley and its lovely smell gives no indication of how poisonous this plant actually is. Besides, the root is said to taste pleasantly before poisoning the consumer.
9. Adenium obesum / Desert Rose
This flower is native to Africa and it has been used as a spear poison by their tribes for centuries. Adenum has been used by African tribes in order to kill animals as large as elephants. This is because the toxin it contains can run up to 2 Kilometers through a body and hunters can stay in their trail while the animals gradually bite the dust. The flower contains a toxic chemical called Ouabain, which affects the respiratory track and causes almost immediate heart failure at high doses. It’s one of the most deadly flowers on the earth.
See also; Top 10 most beautiful roses.
8. Sanguinaria canadensis / Bloodroot
This flower is commonly known as “Bloodroot” and highly abundant in Eastern North America. Bloodroots is eighth most deadly flowers in the world. They have been used by Native Americans as an ornamental dye; However they also used it to induce abortions. Having enough of it will put you in Coma too. The chemical; Sanguarine is lethal as well as an escharotic substance. Escharotics are substances which kill tissues and slough it off as a creamy pulp, leaving behind a dark black scar called an eschar, a piece of dead tissue.
In other words placing Bloodroot on your skin can cause your skin cells to kill themselves. This chemical can also disturb your functions inside the body by disrupting an enzyme called Na+/K+ ATPase which is essential for keeping internal balance in body by pumping sodium out of cells and pumping potassium in. If this process is disturbed, almost all the functions in body break down.
7. Cerbera odollam / Suicide Tree
Commonly known as the “Suicide tree”. Cerbera odollam is the perfect murder weapon according to a group of scientists who investigated a number of deaths in the southwest region of India. This plant produces a potent glycoside called cerberin which is highly poisonous.
Cerberin starts working within an hour. At the beginning some light stomach pain happens and you slip into a quiet coma. Then your heart slowly stops functioning. This entire process takes approximately 3 hours. Another interesting feature is this chemical is untraceable after the process and that is why it is commonly known as a “Discreet murder weapon”.
6. Laburnum / Golden Chain
Laburnum is a deciduous tree native to southern Europe. The trees have gorgeous hanging yellow flowers that give rise to their name, “The Golden chain tree”. Even though Nicotine receptors in everybody’s brain are probably for nicotine molecules, these receptors can also bond with other chemicals, such as Cytisine. Because of its ability to bind with nicotine receptors, it is sometimes used as a drug in order to helps people quit smoking. So in low doses, cytisine is not terribly harmful. However in large doses, it is positively lethal.
This chemical is present in every single part of the tree – bark, roots, leaves and especially the seed pods and has the ability to start working in minutes. Poisoning begins with intense vomiting followed by streams of foam pouring out of the mouth. The convulsions start about after an hour. These convulsions are quite different form the typical convulsions which occur intermittently. The convulsing waves from cytosine poisoning are so close together and your muscles get permanently contract which called tetanic contraction. It all ends in to a deep coma or even death.
5. Colchicum autumnale / Naked Lady
It is commonly known as “Naked lady” and is native to United Kingdom. But it can now be found across Europe and New Zealand too. It is a small herbaceous perennial plant with 10-40 cm in height. The plant grows in wet meadows and shady rocky habitats. It is name; Naked lady is actually a deceptively sexy name for a cold-blooded killer.
All parts of the plant, especially the seeds and bulbs are highly poisonous. The main chemical component at work here is Colchicine which is an alkaloid that systematically shutting down all of your body’s vital functions. Some of the horrifying symptoms include; Diarrhea, bone marrow depression, mass organ failure, blood clots, and nerve disruptions. These symptoms can continue for few more days as yet another internal system goes belly up. Death can happen within few days or a week. But when you eat enough, it is always fatal.
4. Zantedeschia / Calla lily
It is often called as a “Calla lily”, “White calla lily” or “Arum lily” and bright tube-shaped flowers with variety of colors. These species are perennials and native to Southern Africa. They contain calcium oxalate, a chemical which forms needle –like crystals inside internal organs in our body. Even though more than 1000 types of plants contain calcium oxalate; Zantedeschia is one of the most dangerous and deadly flowers, mainly because it is so widespread. If eaten raw, this chemical gives you a feeling as if hundreds of tiny needles are sticking into the mouth, tongue or other organs in body.
Even a tiny amount of this chemical is sufficient to cause a person’s throat to swell, along with an intense burning feeling. Your throat can swell so large that it squeezes your airways shut. However, these toxic chemicals can easily be destroyed by thoroughly cooking or drying the plant.
3. Veratrum / White Hellebore
Veratrum species are gorgeous spiral clusters of white, heart–shaped flowers. And it is a highly abundant on nearly every mountain in the Northern Hemisphere. The plants are tall (2-7 feet) perennial herbs. They are commonly known as “White Hellebore” or “White false hellebore”. The flowers are commonly used for ornamental purposes because of its eye-catching look. But pretty or not, each and every part of this plant, from the pistils to the roots, is lethally toxic. The roots are highly poisonous, along with the paralyzing effect on the nervous system. Veratrum poisoning begins with violent stomach cramping and this normally starts about 30 minutes after ingestion.
The third most deadly flowers in the world. These toxins interrupt the action of sodium ion channels which needs for muscle contraction in body. Upon hitting the sodium channels by the veratrum toxins, they force the channels to function continuously. The body has no idea what to do with this, so the heart begins to beat alternately slowly and rapidly. As a result, muscles all over the body convulse and that either causes coma or a heart attack.
2. Jacobaea vulgaris / Ragwort
These flowers are commonly known as “Ragwort”. And it is a highly abundant wildflower in the United Kingdom as well as Northern Finland. They can grow well in roadsides, meadows, harbors and on waste ground. They grow as a perennial herb and about 30-80 cm in height. The world health organization has confirmed the presence of at least eight toxic alkaloids in Ragwort. Unlike most poisons, which quickly leave the system, the alkaloids in ragwort do not. Instead they accumulate in the liver over time. The buildup of toxins results in liver cirrhosis, in which the liver gradually folds in on itself as healthy cells degenerate into an unresponsive mass of tissues.
However when the time symptoms starts appearing, the damage is irreversible. Because the liver can operate like normal until up to 75 percent of it is been destroyed. Few of the horrifying symptoms include; Loss of coordination, blindness, stabbing abdominal pain and yellow eye from bile pigment that fills the eye’s surface membrane.
1. Kalmia latifolia / Mountain Laurel
This flower is more commonly known as “Mountain Laurel” or “Calico Bush”. And it produces pink and white flowers in the late spring. It’s one of the most deadly flowers on earth. The broadleaf evergreen mountain-laurel is typically 12-20 ft. shrub. It is highly abundant in the Eastern United States and considered as the state flower of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut. As mountain laurel is a very poisonous narcotic plant, some native North American tribes have used the plant leaves in order to commit suicide. The flower looks gorgeous but underneath that dainty exterior beats the heart of a murderer. The whole plant is highly toxic and the flower produces two types of poisons namely andromedatoxin and arbutin, but it is the andromedatoxin that you need to worry about more.
With small doses of this toxin, you can expect to have a lot of vomiting, salivation, watering of eyes and nose; Abdominal pain and slowing down of your breathing. About an hour later, you will lose the ability to use muscles and finally may slip into a coma and die. Furthermore andromedatoxin simultaneously causes part of the brain to beat quickly and the other part to beat dangerously slowly. The terrifying point is that even the honey from bees that have visited this flower holds all the toxic properties of the flower itself.