There are many plants that can be healing or poisonous, depending. Many years ago, before I had dogs and hounds that would nibble just about anything, I had a little "poison garden" near my herb garden. It struck me that just as plants can be health-giving or death-dealing so, too, are there many things in our modern life that I can say the same thing about. Michael was a good sport and agreed to sit for the first photo in this photo-series "The Poison Garden." The plant he is holding is foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Foxglove has deep medicinal properties: used for centuries as a powerful treatment for heart failure. The medicine digitalis, still used today for congestive heart failure and heart arrhythmia, is derived from this plant. Every part of the plant is also poisonous. Symptoms of Digitalis poisoning include a low pulse rate, nausea, vomiting, and uncoordinated contractions of different parts of the heart, leading to cardiac arrest and finally death. I have paired Digitalis purpurea with "food" as this photo's theme. Food is certainly life-giving and--in today's culture where calories are cheap and nutrition is expensive--it is also death-dealing. Michael sat for me in front of a refrigerator full of fast food and soda. Consumption of fatty, fried, high-calorie/low-nutrition food has been linked to heart disease. PHOTO: "The Poison Garden: Digitalis purpurea, 2" MODEL: Michael Victor Troutman PHOTO ASSISTANCE: Ron Whitehead and Angie Rice Vittitow