Where is it?
Where is it? Alnwick Poison Garden. In the grounds of the Duchess of Northumberland’s family home, Alnwick Castle, Northumberland. Why do you go there? To see plants that can literally stop your heart. For the otherworldliness, and dare I say, thrill of entering the poison garden, knowing that all of the plants within it will make you very sick and some will even kill. Helleborus niger – common name Christmas rose – contains a cardiac toxin called helleborine which first slows down and then stops your heart. And Digitalis purpurea – foxglove – contains cardiac glycosides and, in particular, digoxin which if ingested can cause cardiac arrest. Then there is Ricinus communis, the castor oil plant seen in municipal planting schemes in parks all over the country. Not many people know that the seeds are the part that produces the oil, but they also contain ricin, one of the deadliest poisons in the world . How often do you go? Not as often as I’d like because I live in Brighton. How did you discover it? On a two-week driving holiday in a rusty and very temperamental VW campervan. We were en route from London to Edinburgh with two small…
The British garden home to the world's deadliest plants – BBC REEL
The Poison Garden at the Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, England is one of the deadliest gardens in the world. It features ...