- A Moravian college course focuses on “wicked” plants
- The course is taught by Natasha Woods, an assistant professor of biology
- Poisonous plants can be found all over
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Walking Wednesday near the Spring Street Bridge, Natasha Woods spotted pokeweed, white snakeroot and English ivy.
“All poisonous,” said Woods, an assistant professor of biology at Moravian University. “I was just taking a walk. And I'm like, ‘Oh, here's three right here. They're all over.’
“Poisonous plants are all over.”
Woods created and teaches a course at the university called “Wicked Plants,” an interdisciplinary class for juniors and seniors. While students learn to identify some medicinal, edible and toxic plants, they also study how some plants have affected history for both the good and bad, through their healing, addictive, profitable or edible properties.
“I don't know why people love this course so much,” Woods said. “They have to talk, it's eight o'clock in the morning — but they just love it.”
‘These plants are still relevant’
The course is structured as a collaborative discussion, using stories to help connect students to science. The textbooks for the class include “Wicked Plants: The Weed that Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities,” written by Amy Stewart, as well as “Fifty Plants that Changed the Course of History,” by Bill Laws.
“Foxglove being one of them,” Woods said, pointing to a photo of the plant, also known as digitalis. “It changed how we thought about treating heart attacks and has saved multiple lives.
“Tobacco has changed the course of history, with lung cancer being one of the major ways people die around the world.”
Each week, students study a plant before being split into groups. While all the students are required to complete the assigned reading, usually a scholarly journal article, they have additional responsibilities.
One group finds a news article about a person or animal affected by the plant, and another researches the plant family through its characteristics. Then, there’s a participant group — those students are responsible for asking and answering questions.
In addition to participating in class, students are tasked with writing two papers during the semester, one on theme for each text.
“The reason why I do wicked plants in the news is to let them know that these things are still relevant,” Woods said. “These plants are still relevant. They're still affecting people's lives.”
With students from all different majors in the class, it fosters collaboration and exploration, said Helaena Holjes, a senior at Moravian studying environmental science.
“We had so much fun in that class, just talking about plants and so many interdisciplinary majors and exchanging ideas and whatnot was really fun.”Helaena Holjes, student
“I love plants. I've taken every one of her classes that she offers, [and] have begged her to offer more,” Holjes said. “We had so much fun in that class, just talking about plants and so many interdisciplinary majors and exchanging ideas and whatnot was really fun.”
‘Giving them the onus’
By learning about the environment in this way, students can better advocate for positive change wherever they go, Woods said.
“You have the power of the vote. You have the power of your voice,” Woods said. “And so, giving them the onus, ‘This is your community. Learn something about whatever community you go into, and be an advocate for your community.’
“Because you may be one of few college-educated students there.”
Woods grew up in Anniston, Alabama, where, from 1929 until 1971, a Monsanto Corp. plant released polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, into the environment.
PCBs are man-made organic chemicals consisting of carbon, hydrogen and chlorine atoms, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. They’ve been shown to cause cancer in animals, as well as effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.
They’ve also been linked to cancer in humans.
The area is included on a list of the EPA’s superfund sites, a catalog of sites that have been polluted or contaminated with hazardous chemicals.
It was a college-educated resident who caught an abnormal fish there and had it tested at an independent lab, Woods said.
“He helped get that ball rolling on unveiling all the PCBs that were in that community,” she said. “But then we've got somebody with some hard proof that's willing to come forward and say that there are PCBs in these fish, and these people should not be eating these fish, let alone swimming in these waters — you can't ignore that.”
“They're products of their evolutionary history — this is not about you at all. It's about their personal survival. They didn't exist for you to be healed or poisoned."Natasha Woods, assistant professor of biology at Moravian University
Woods ends her classes the same, with a simple truth — plants aren't wicked.
“They're products of their evolutionary history — this is not about you at all,” she said. “It's about their personal survival. They didn't exist for you to be healed or poisoned.
“… If we touch them or ingest them in the wrong dose, wrong way, they may harm or kill us. If we use them in the right dose or the right way, they can save our lives. But plants themselves are not wicked.”
