{"product_id":"the-devil-s-garden-the-world-s-most-sinister-plants-and-fung-5469","title":"The Devil's Garden: The World's Most Sinister Plants and Fungi","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA lively exploration of the poisoners, tricksters, stingers, stinkers and invaders of the plant world and how their lives intertwine with ours.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A wonderful tour through a garden of gruesome delights. Peter Marren explores the slimy, smelly, spiky and sinister in all their glorious awfulness.\" \u003c\/b\u003e-- \u003ci\u003eKathryn Harkup, author of A is for Arsenic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome plants and fungi - those we cultivate in farms, gardens and allotments - are pretty, useful or edible. Others are more troublesome: poisonous, or with painful stings, sinister looks or foul smells. In the medieval mind, these would be the flowers of the devil, planted on earth to torment humankind.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe infamous death cap mushroom, innocent-looking but lethal. The monstrous corpse flower, with a stench to match its name. The mandrake, said to scream if uprooted. In this deeply insightful and unflinching read, naturalist and conservationist Peter Marren explores the world's 'worst' plants and fungi and the ways they maim, murder and make mischief to get by.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese species have rich histories, steeped in folklore and superstition, but there are also biological reasons behind why they are the way they are. Step into the devil's garden and discover their stories, as amusing as they are unexpected and as gripping as they are horrifying.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePeter Marren\u003c\/b\u003e is a natural-history writer and former government and freelance conservationist. He is a wildlife polymath whose writings extend from newspaper journalism, obituaries, book reviews and opinion pieces to humour and news summaries for the likes of \u003ci\u003eWhitaker's Almanack\u003c\/i\u003e. He is the author of more than 20 books, including \u003ci\u003eBugs Britannica\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eChasing the Ghost\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAfter They're Gone\u003c\/i\u003e, and two books in the British Wildlife Collection series: \u003ci\u003eMushrooms \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003e Rare Plants.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peter Marren","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51995917680925,"sku":"9781399425469","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0821\/9095\/8877\/files\/9781399425469.jpg?v=1783539078","url":"https:\/\/www.anovelideaphilly.com\/products\/the-devil-s-garden-the-world-s-most-sinister-plants-and-fung-5469","provider":"A Novel Idea on Passyunk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}