“There’s a garden in England dedicated entirely to plants that are deadly and can kill you,” claims a graphic shared as a screenshot on Facebook on 25 November 2020.
Text above a photo says it shows “the most dangerous garden in the world”, which “holds over 100 killers” such as “hemlock, strychnine and nightshade”.
The photo shows a large, black iron gate. The gate has signs saying “The Poison Garden”, “These Plants Can Kill You” and skull and crossbones.
The screenshot has been viewed over 806,200 times since it was first posted. It has been flagged as potentially false by Facebook’s fact-checking system.
Is the most dangerous garden in England and does it boast over a hundred deadly plants? We checked.
The screenshot shared on Facebook appears to be of the Facebook app on a cell phone. Above the graphic are the words “The Alnwick Garden, Northumberland UK”, appearing to indicate the location of the gate pictured.
A Google search reveals the gate is real. The Poison Garden is part of the larger Alnwick Garden in the northern UK.
According to the Alnwick Garden website the Poison Garden is “filled exclusively with around 100 intoxicating and narcotic plants”. Visitors are only allowed in on guided tours and are prohibited from smelling, touching or tasting any of the plants.
The garden includes highly poisonous plants such as belladonna, monkshood and the castor bean plant, which contains one of the most toxic naturally occurring substances, ricin.
Even with safety precautions in place, visitors have fainted during tours of the Poison Garden because of the fumes from some of the plants.
The garden has been called the most dangerous garden in the world by publications such as the Smithsonian Magazine and BBC Earth.
The screenshot shared on Facebook is quite correct – a garden dedicated entirely to deadly plants does exist in Northumberland in the UK. – Naledi Mashishi
Text above a photo says it shows “the most dangerous garden in the world”, which “holds over 100 killers” such as “hemlock, strychnine and nightshade”.
The photo shows a large, black iron gate. The gate has signs saying “The Poison Garden”, “These Plants Can Kill You” and skull and crossbones.
The screenshot has been viewed over 806,200 times since it was first posted. It has been flagged as potentially false by Facebook’s fact-checking system.
Is the most dangerous garden in England and does it boast over a hundred deadly plants? We checked.
The Poison Garden part of Alnwick Garden in Northumberland, UK
The screenshot shared on Facebook appears to be of the Facebook app on a cell phone. Above the graphic are the words “The Alnwick Garden, Northumberland UK”, appearing to indicate the location of the gate pictured.
A Google search reveals the gate is real. The Poison Garden is part of the larger Alnwick Garden in the northern UK.
According to the Alnwick Garden website the Poison Garden is “filled exclusively with around 100 intoxicating and narcotic plants”. Visitors are only allowed in on guided tours and are prohibited from smelling, touching or tasting any of the plants.
The garden includes highly poisonous plants such as belladonna, monkshood and the castor bean plant, which contains one of the most toxic naturally occurring substances, ricin.
Even with safety precautions in place, visitors have fainted during tours of the Poison Garden because of the fumes from some of the plants.
The garden has been called the most dangerous garden in the world by publications such as the Smithsonian Magazine and BBC Earth.
The screenshot shared on Facebook is quite correct – a garden dedicated entirely to deadly plants does exist in Northumberland in the UK. – Naledi Mashishi
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