Week of the Triffids: Doll's Eyes

If that title alone did not send shivers up your spine, you have never seen Chuckie. Or Rozen Maiden. Or...anything involving killer dolls, really. The plant is much creepier than either of those regardless:


Chuckie has nothing on this.

Doll's Eyes (Actaea pachypoda) are native to the Eastern United States and Canada. One can only assume that the settlers immediately thought that they were manifestations of Satan and proceeded to hover crosses over these plants. They are related to wolfsbane and monkshood.


(I have seen these IRL; they ARE kinda creepy, even if they're not in full color. This is the freakiest thing you will EVER see in IL.)

True to the red-yellow/white-black trinity, Doll's Eyes are highly poisonous to mammals, including humans and rabbits. Specifically, they contain cardiotoxins - toxins that attack the heart. Eating these berries is like getting hit by the Death Note.


Yeah, those berries look more like shinigami food to me.

Despite its toxicity, it has been used by native Canadians to calm menstrual periods (if you do not know what that is, good for you) and as a medicine after childbirth. Yes, it sucks that much to be a chick sometimes.

The creepiest thing about it, in this author's opinion, is that those berries DO look a lot like eyes. Although poisonous to humans, the berries are not toxic to the birds that help disperse the plant's seeds. If the berries look like eyes, and birds know to look for those berries...what is keeping them from eating human eyes on a regular basis?