What's the most dangerous plant?

[Paul_in_Qatar]

@Ethilrist

alkaloids. That’s the term I was thinking of earlier…

Don’t Alkaloids come in those nice tins boxes? My sister collects them for some reason.

[vetbridge]

@Mangetout

Ricinus communis (the castor bean) has to be somewhere up there near the top slot; the toxin Ricin extracted from this plant is very very deadly - a single molecule of the stuff is apparently enough to trigger a metabolic cascade in a living cell, killing it.

I would second (third) castor bean.

[Squink]

@lissener

That was gonna be my guess. I grow Ricinus in my garden; gorgeous plant.

Plus, when the first hard frost hits, the leaves sort of melt, and you get a crop of “squids on sticks” to scare the kids with on halloween.

[scm1001]

quick search reveals some common N Am plants including waterhemlock which is reputed to be the most poisonous native to NA (“one mouthful can kill!” - from
http://trackertrail.com/survival/food/poisonousplants/waterhemlock/index.html )
however one rosary pea can kill an adult http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/abruspre.htm#SectionTitle:1.2%20Family

here are some more common poisonous plants, some with estimated toxicity (2 beans to kill a child etc) http://home.okstate.edu/tools/webtools.nsf/Images/hortext/$FILE/poisonousplants.pdf

[Crafter_Man]

Girl declared brain-dead after eating hemlock

[Crandolph]

@flurb

Tobacco.

Well if we’re going that route, how about sugar cane/corn/beets? Or any grain that ferments?

[Quartz]

@Love Rhombus

I have a very geekish reason for wanting to know this, but I will not bore you by telling you about it. Suffice to say that I recently became interested in the offensive and lethal possibilities of botany. I gots a question, I asks the smart peoples. So, what’s the really man-killer among the leafy set?

The Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.