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Quick question: what’s your favorite flower? Okay, got it in your head? Good.
Odds are the one you picked is relatively safe, but some of you may have unwittingly chosen a flower that can take your life.
Today we’re taking a look at 5 flowers that are not to be fucked with. Because they are cold-blooded murderers if given half a chance.
5. Poison and Water Hemlock
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Poison hemlock comes from Europe and Africa, though it does make appearances in North America, Asia, and Australia. Even the smallest ingestion of this plant can cause respiratory collapse and swift death.
Thought poison hemlock was bad? Meet water hemlock, the most toxic plant in North America. Take a taste and you’re in for some grand mal seizures…and then you’ll die.
The craziest part? Both poison and water hemlock are quite common, and they look a lot like Queen Anne’s lace, another common flower. You’ve probably brushed past some hemlock before.
So beware…
4. Foxgloves
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Foxgloves originated in Europe and Asia, and contain glycosides, digitoxin, and deslanoside, all which can do major heart damage. Basically, no eating any of the 20+ species of foxglove. They don’t call them “Dead Man’s Bells” for nothing.
So what happens if you eat one of the leaves? Hallucinations, tremors, convulsions, vomiting. You know, all the fun stuff you don’t want to be before dying an untimely death.
3. Azaleas
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Azaleas originated in Asia, but are now pretty prominent in the US, particularly in the Southern states. In fact, there are 26 different species that now grow wild in North America. Yay us!
However, Azaleas contain grayanotoxins, and those really do a number on the central nervous system. Basically, eat enough and you’ll end up in a coma… maybe even a coffin. Also, dogs, cats, and horses should stay far away from azaleas because they can get messed up too.
2. Angel’s Trumpet
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These droopy, musically shaped flowers came from South America and are now considered extinct in the wild. But, of course, humans have decided that they need to live on, and so we bring them into our homes like the morons that we are.
Okay, yeah, I might be a bit harsh, but these pendulous flowers can give you symptoms like delirium, hallucinations, diarrhea and vomiting. They can also screw up your vision, paralyze you or, yes, kill you deader than a doorknob.
Maybe these things should have gone extinct like they were intended to do? Just a thought.
1. Lily of the Valley
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Native to Northern Europe and America, Convallaria majalis enjoys the more cool, temperate areas of the Northern hemisphere. Basically, you can’t find this one in Southern hemisphere, so you’re safe, South America and Africa!
But this one is a heartbreaker. Literally. 38 different kinds of cardiac glycosides course through this dainty flower, all of which could absolutely devastate your heart if you took a bite and didn’t get treatment. However, there’s a slight upside… the poison enters your body slowly, so it’s not necessarily a death sentence.
Common symptoms include vomiting, delusions, blurred vision, severe headache, nausea, slowed heart rate and excessive urination. So if you have any of those, get your ass to the hospital quickly. There’s still time.
