"An innocuous plant, white snakeroot was responsible for the death of Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks. White snakeroot is a North American herb with flat-topped clusters of small white flowers and contains a toxic alcohol known as trematol. Unlike those who have died from directly ingesting deadly plants, poor Nancy Hanks was poisoned by simply drinking the milk of a cow who had grazed on the plant. Indeed, both the meat and milk from poisoned livestock can pass the toxin to human consumers. Symptoms of "milk poisoning" include loss of appetite, nausea, weakness, abdominal discomfort, reddened tongue, abnormal acidity of the blood, and death. Luckily farmers are now aware of this life-threatening hazard and make efforts remove the plant from animal pastures."