There is a plant growing in European woodlands right now that looks exactly like wild garlic. The edible herb people harvest for pesto and salads. It grows in the same damp forests, emerges in the same spring months, and has the same broad green leaves that foragers seek for their kitchens. [music] Between 2020 and 2022, 28 people in France alone harvested it thinking it was safe, healthy, delicious wild garlic. They were poisoning themselves with autumn crocus, a plant so toxic that 35% of victims die even with emergency hospital treatment and no antidote exists. You are watching forgotten soil. We reveal the poisonous plants hiding in plain sight disguised as food. Every episode we expose one more deadly mimic. If you want to stay safe, subscribe now. This is today's warning. Autumn crocus is not rare. It is not exotic and it is not confined to remote wilderness areas where only experts venture into dangerous territory. It grows throughout Europe from Britain to Ukraine in the same moist deciduous forests where families walk, children play, and foragers gather wild edible plants. The plant appears in public woodlands, hiking trails, meadows near streams, [music] and even cultivated gardens where people plant it for its beautiful purple autumn flowers. [music] In spring, when wild garlic is in season and foragers are actively harvesting, autumn crocus leaves emerge from the same forest floor in identical conditions. Both plants prefer shade. Both need moisture. Both grow in patches that can spread across meters of woodland, and both [music] produce broad green leaves in March through May. The deadly confusion happens during spring foraging season when neither plant has flowers yet, and the only visible parts are green leaves emerging from damp soil. Wild garlic blooms with distinctive white star-shaped flowers in April and May. But autumn crocus earns its name by flowering only in September through November with purple blooms during the critical harvesting window [music] in early spring when foragers are filling bags with what they believe is wild garlic for fresh pesto sauce. Both plants look almost identical. The mistake happens in France, in Germany, in Austria, in Switzerland, in Slovenia, in Britain, [music] anywhere both species grow together in the same European woodlands and meadows. Between March and May every year, poison control centers across Europe receive calls from people who harvested the wrong plant and are now experiencing the first symptoms. Half of the victims in the French study had made pesto sauce, blending what they thought was wild garlic with olive oil, garlic, and pine nuts. In Austria in 2003, a 76-year-old man walked into the forest and harvested two whole plants that he believed were wild garlic. He had alcoholic liver disease and chronic kidney problems, and he thought wild garlic would be healthy for his damaged liver, a natural remedy he could gather himself. 2 hours after eating the plants, he felt nausea creeping in, a burning sensation beginning in his throat that he initially dismissed as normal digestive discomfort. 4 to 5 hours later, he was vomiting repeatedly, violent wretching that emptied his stomach, followed by watery diarrhea that would not stop no matter what he tried. 12 hours after his meal, he arrived at the emergency department carrying the remaining plant material he had not yet eaten. Hoping doctors could identify what was wrong, the toxicologist took one look at the plant and identified it immediately as Colchukum autumn nail autumn crocus, one of the deadliest plants growing in European forests. [music] Doctors performed gastric lavage, pumped his stomach, gave him 30 gram of activated charcoal, and transferred him to the intensive care unit for aggressive [music] supportive treatment and monitoring. On the second day, toxicology analysis confirmed cultureine in his blood at 9 micrograms per liter and in his urine at 6 micrograms per liter, levels indicating severe poisoning. His heart showed dilitation with diffuse hypokinesia on the echo cardiogram meaning the heart muscle was weakening failing to pump blood effectively throughout his deteriorating body. His tropponin [music] I was positive a marker that indicates heart muscle damage the kind of injury that predicts death in cultine poisoning according to later studies. He developed pneumonia as his respiratory system failed rabdomiolyis as his muscles [music] broke down. coagulopathy. As his blood lost the ability to clot properly, his liver enzymes climbed higher, his kidney function deteriorated further. And on the third day after eating those two plants, his heart stopped in astoic cardiac arrest. He died despite every intervention modern medicine could provide because there is no antidote for cultureine, the poison that saturated every cell in his body. In Slovenia, researchers reviewed every autumn crocus poisoning case admitted to their university medical center over 20 years from 2000 to 2019. 16 adult patients were admitted. Every single one had mistakenly ingested autumn crocus leaves in spring, thinking they were harvesting wild garlic from the forest undergrowth. All 16 cases were confirmed by laboratory testing, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry detecting cultureine in their blood with levels ranging from 0.5 to 80 micrograms per liter. 94% developed bone marrow suppression. Their bodies stopped producing blood cells leaving them vulnerable to bleeding, infection, and oxygen starvation as cells shut down everywhere. Five patients showed positive traropponin eye, meaning their hearts were dying. And four of those five patients died from cardiogenic shock despite intensive care and every available life support measure. The overall mortality rate was 25%. Four deaths out of 16 cases. And when researchers reviewed the medical literature, they found 58 additional documented cases. 95% of all cases involved the same mistake. People who thought they were harvesting alium um wild garlic, the safe edible plant that grows in identical locations. The combined lethality across all reviewed cases was 35%. 26 people dead out of 74 documented poisonings. Even with emergency hospital treatment available. So, how does this happen? How do experienced foragers, people who know plants and recognize edible species, harvest something so deadly that one in three victims dies? Wild garlic, aliium ursinum, is a popular foraged ingredient throughout Europe. Prized for its fresh garlicky flavor that elevates pesto, salads, soups, [music] and pasta dishes in restaurants, it grows 15 to 40 cm tall when mature, producing bright green leaves that are shiny when young with distinctive white [music] pompom flower clusters appearing in spring. The leaves are elliptical to lancelate shaped, pointed at the tip, and each individual leaf grows on its own distinct [music] stem called a pedole that can reach 20 cm long. When you crush a wild garlic leaf between your fingers, it releases an unmistakable strong pungent smell [music] of garlic and onions. A scent so powerful it perfumes entire woodlands. Autumn crocus culture come autumn nail grows in those same damp deciduous forests emerging in spring with broad green leaves that look deceptively similar to the untrained or hurried eye. The leaves are strap-shaped, dark green, thick, and leathery, growing 15 to 35 cm long, appearing in clusters of 3 to 8 from the same underground corn. Every part of the plant contains [music] colultine, a water- soluble alkyoid measured at over 2,000 micrograms per gram in the leaves, stems, and roots of tested specimens. Culticine binds to tubulin inside every cell, preventing the protein from forming microtubules, which means cells cannot divide, [music] cannot transport materials, cannot function, and eventually die everywhere simultaneously. The organs that suffer first are those with the fastest cell turnover. The intestinal lining that regenerates constantly. The bone marrow producing new blood cells every day. A fatal dose can be as small as 7 to 26 milligrams of pure cultine. And approximately 2 grams of autumn crocus leaves contains enough poison to kill. The lowest lethal concentration measured in victim's blood is 9 nanogs per milliliter. A microscopic amount that triggers cascading organ failure throughout the entire body within days. There is no antidote, no reversal agent, no medication that binds culticesine and pulls it out of poison cells once the toxin has distributed through tissues. Treatment is entirely supportive, [music] meaning doctors can only watch organs fail while providing fluids, vasopressors, ventilation, and hope that somehow the patients body survives the assault. Someone walks into a spring forest in France or Austria or Slovenia, searching for the patches of wild garlic they harvested successfully last year from this same location. They see broad green leaves emerging from moist soil beneath the trees. The leaves look right, the location is right, [music] the season is right. Everything matches their memory. You cannot cook the poison out. Heat does not break down cultine. Boiling it in soup or sautéing it in oil leaves the toxin completely intact. You cannot induce vomiting safely once symptoms begin. The toxin absorbs through the stomach lining within hours and vomiting risks aspiration into already compromised lungs. You cannot wait for symptoms to decide if you need help. The latency period means you feel fine for 2 to 12 hours while cultine silently distributes everywhere. You cannot trust that cooking in a recipe dilutes the danger. Victims made pesto sauce, blending multiple leaves, and the concentration was more than enough to kill. You cannot rely on experience alone to keep you safe. The 76-year-old Austrian man had harvested plants before, and his [music] confidence became his death sentence. The first phase of poisoning begins 2 to 12 hours after ingestion, though some victims [music] report nausea starting as early as 2 hours after their meal. The throat burns, the stomach cramps violently, and then vomiting begins. Not occasional nausea, but repeated violent wretching that empties everything and continues past empty into bile. Watery diarrhea follows, profuse and bloody. The intestinal lining, dying and sloughing off in sheets as cultine destroys the rapidly dividing cells that maintain the gut barrier. Victims lose massive amounts of fluid through vomiting and diarrhea. Hypoalmic shock develops, blood pressure drops, and the heart struggles to pump what little blood volume remains circulating. Within 24 to 72 hours, the second phase begins. And this is when people die from rapidly progressive multiorgan failure that overwhelms every life support system. The heart develops arhythmias, irregular beating patterns that can suddenly stop. and cardiac muscle cells die, showing positive tropponent eye and blood tests that predict fatal outcomes. The bone marrow stops producing blood cells. White blood cell [music] counts plummet, leaving victims defenseless against infection. Platelets disappear, making every small injury a hemorrhage risk. Red blood cells vanish. The liver fails, unable to metabolize drugs or produce clotting factors. Enzymes [music] spill into the bloodstream, marking widespread hpatocy death across the entire organ. The kidneys shut down, creatining climbs, urine output drops to nothing, [music] and toxins accumulate in blood that can no longer be filtered or removed from the dying body. [music] Respiratory failure follows. Lungs fill with fluid. Oxygen saturation drops and mechanical ventilation becomes necessary just to force air into collapsing alvei that cannot exchange gases. Sepsis develops from opportunistic infections. The immune system destroyed by bone marrow failure cannot fight bacteria that colonize dying tissues. And septic shock [music] accelerates the cardiovascular collapse. Most deaths occur between 24 hours and 7 days after ingestion. From cardiogenic shock when the heart cannot pump, from respiratory failure when lungs cannot oxygenate, from septic [music] shock. The cruelty is that victims often reach the hospital, receive intensive care in modern facilities with every available technology, and still 35% die from poisoning that has no reversal. But here's what you can do. Here is how you protect yourself and everyone you care about from making this same deadly mistake in the forest. Every year, more cases are reported because wild garlic has become trendy in cuisine. Food bloggers promote foraging. [music] Restaurants feature seasonal wild ingredients, and people harvest without proper training. Social media shows beautiful photos of wild garlic pesto without explaining that one misidentified leaf mixed into that batch could kill everyone who tastes it at dinner. Foraging guides focus on identifying the edible plant, but fail to emphasize checking every single individual leaf for the safety features that separate food from fatal poison. Overconfidence kills [music] experienced plant gatherers who assume they know what wild garlic looks like without verifying the smell, the stem, and multiple identifying features on each plant. That mistake is preventable. And here is how you never make it. Here is the protocol that keeps you alive when foraging in European woodlands during spring. Autumn crocus grows in moist deciduous forests, woodland edges, meadows near streams. the exact same locations where wild garlic thrives throughout France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, Britain. In spring, from March through May, both plants have leaves present, but neither has the distinctive flowers that make identification obvious from a distance across the forest floor. If you see broad green leaves in a damp woodland during spring foraging season and you are considering harvesting them, stop before you touch a single leaf. Wash your hands completely first to remove any lingering garlic smell from plants you tested earlier because residual scent on your fingers will contaminate every subsequent smell test. Pick one leaf, crush it between your fingers, and smell it immediately. Wild garlic produces a strong, unmistakable, pungent garlic odor that hits you instantly upon [music] crushing. If you smell nothing, if the leaf has a neutral odor or any smell other than strong garlic, drop it immediately and do not consume [music] anything from that patch. Check that each leaf has its own individual stem. A pedole growing separately from the ground because wild garlic leaves emerge individually while autumn crocus leaves grow stemless in clusters. Verify [music] at least five separate identification features, including smell, individual leaf stems, shiny leaf surface, white flowers if present, and the characteristic garlic scent that never lies. If exposure occurs, if you or anyone you know consumes a plant [music] and then discovers it might have been autumn crocus, call poison control immediately without waiting. Do not wait for symptoms to appear. The latency period means you feel fine while cultene distributes [music] and treatment becomes feudal once multiorgan failure begins. Tell emergency services the plant name cultureum autumnal the time of ingestion, the estimated amount consumed and [music] bring the plant sample in a sealed bag to the hospital. Every person who learns this can teach someone else. Every conversation is one more forager who checks the smell before harvesting. >> One more person who does not die. The broad green leaves they trusted in spring. The fresh pesto sauce they prepared for dinner. The wild garlic they were certain they recognized. [music] The mistake that killed them within 3 days. The Austrian forager had gathered plants for years. The Slovenian victims were experienced. The French families thought they knew the difference. Now you know what they all missed. Autumn crocus is still here. Still growing in European woodlands and meadows. Still disguised as wild garlic in spring. still waiting for the next forager who assumes instead of smelling each individual leaf. One missing smell test, one fatal assumption. Subscribe if this saves you. The warning stands.