Only the bravest would dare to visit the deadliest garden in the world

12/14/2017

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Nature Story: Only the bravest would dare to visit the deadliest garden in the world

Can you imagine that there is a garden in the world that contains nothing but deadly poison plants? Some of them can kill you in 30 minutes.

Various gardens in the world perform many different functions. They mostly used for decorating or bringing amazing the fragrance to the territory. However there is a garden that you could hardly call an ordinary one.

What do you see in the picture? This beautiful garden is not simple at all.

The Alnwick Garden that is adjacent to Alnwick Castle in the town of Alnwick, seems to be a heavenly good place for rest from the first sight.

However, you won't get into the Eastern part of the garden surrounded by fence without guidance. The reason is that this small garden contains poisonous plants.

The idea of the poison garden

The poison garden was created by Jane Percy, Duchess of Northumberland in 2005. At first, the duchess wanted to make an ordinary garden but once she visited the garden of Medici she changed her mind. Some plants in the garden of Medici were cultivated for medical purposes.

Jane Percy thought that a poison garden would attract children's interest. To her mind, kids do not like stories about healing features of plants, they're more interested in the deadly effect. The Duchess would start cultivating poison herbs immediately but she had to spend about a year to get all the necessary permissions from the government of the UK.

These plants can kill. All of the species are behind the fence.

There are more than 100 species of deadly and hallucinogenic plants, such as Strychnos nux-vomica (source of strychnine), hemlock, Ricinus communis (source of harmless castor oil but also deadly ricin), foxglove, Atropa belladonna (commonly called Deadly Nightshade), Brugmansia and Laburnum.

You're not allowed to go there alone

You can walk the territory only escorted by a specialist. The garden managers don't let anyone pick up, smell or taste the plants, as it may cause hallucinations or death.

Poisonous plants are for amateurs, beautiful flowers are for the rest

However, if you are not impressed with the poison garden, you can walk the Alnwick garden which is full of ordinary flowers, which are also beautiful.

Is it a good idea to grow deadly plants in the garden? What if they were used for treatment? Comment if you want to have such a garden for yourself!

Your friends might have never seen the poison garden! Share the article! Let them know!

#knowledge #Nature

What are your thoughts on this subject?

29 Comments

Colin de Kock

A pity that other than the title photo, there are no photos of the garden.

Trevor Murdoch

There is also a poison garden at Blarney Castle in Ireland.

Evangeline Phillips

Many of the plants in a poison garden also have medicinal use, i.e. foxglove or digitalis which is a useful heart medicine, deadly nightshade or belladonna which again when used correctly is a useful medicine, poppy which is a poison and a hallucinogenic or which is a powerful painkiller when used properly as a medicine.

Satish Chandran

Fagtail palm trees are grown in apartments as ornamental trees. Many don't know the fruits,leaves are poisonous.

Allison Aspden

Interesting concept - the creation of a poison garden!

Steve Tingle

Not difficult to do, I started looking into poisonous plants when I realised that .y front garden had a laburnum tree and a bed of lily of the valley. But many very common plants are deadly if eaten daffodils for instance.

hector tubens

Interesting information. Good Q and A.

ninakamwene

As a scientist I was interested, but I would not let lay folks visit it. Thank you.

Jenny Barker

Horrified to find we had some of theses plants in our own garden

Cheryl McMeekin

All very interesting

Yvonne C. Wood

Awesome I will truly investigate this

Irene A

Nick George, so is talk like that

Anita Clark Morton

As soon as they mentioned the 'Poison Garden' I knew where they were talking about. We used to live in northern England, not far from Alnwick, and visited many times. We saw the poison garden the first year it was put in. Even THAT garden is beautiful

Delton Streetman

Joan Paul, I would think that on private property surrounded by a impenetrable wall and limited to admittance only with a guide to protect you would be a pretty safe place.