Classical Toxic Flora
Historic botanical poisons of antiquity and the Middle Ages, emphasizing non-solanaceous neurotoxins and cardioactive plants.
Inside this collection
Aconitum & Monkshood
Aconitum napellus, characteristic helmet flowers, aconitine toxicity, and ancient Greek accounts of Cerberus's foam.
Conium maculatum
Poison hemlock morphology, purple-spotted stems, coniine pharmacology, and the recorded execution of Socrates.
Cicuta virosa
Water hemlock and cowbane, wetland habitats, hollow chambered rootstocks, and cicutoxin-induced convulsant toxicity.
Taxus baccata
The English yew, taxine alkaloids, fleshy red arils, and ancient churchyard associations across the British Isles.
Helleborus Species
Black and green hellebore, palmate foliage, protoanemonin irritants, and their role as classical evacuants in Galenic medicine.
Digitalis purpurea
Common foxglove, speckled tubular bells, cardiac glycosides, and William Withering's 1785 clinical treatise.
Colchicum autumnale
Meadow saffron or autumn crocus, leafless autumn blooms, colchicine chemistry, and medieval gout treatment archives.
Strychnos nux-vomica
The poison nut tree of Southeast Asia, disc-shaped silky seeds, strychnine isolation, and historical rodenticide registries.
A darker leaf.
A closer look.
We trace the line between botanical evidence, historical remedies and plant lore. A beautiful specimen deserves a careful reading.
Our approach