Nothing is known of the malevolent botanical species known as the Maldita Toxicohedron prior to his appearance in Keystone City in late 1943. Phineas Burton, a mild-mannered botanist and agrarian maintained a greenhouse on the outskirts of Keystone and in a standard shipment of exotic plants, received one he could not readily identify.   Curious, he potted the strange plant and retired for the evening.  The next morning, the strange vine had grown remarkably and when Burton expressed his surprise, he was further astonished when the plant telepathically spoke back.  Moreover, the plant (identifying itself as the Maldita Toxicohedron) was demanding, requiring materials for even further growth.  When Burton pleaded he lacked funds for that kind of purchase, the Toxicohedron ensnared him strangling vines and threatened him until he agreed to commit crimes.  To assist him, the Maldita provided an extract to apply to other plants.

In the following days, Burton began delivering plants as gifts to specific targets.  His first known visit was to the Industrial Trust Company, where he provided a pitcher plant laced with the extract to the guard.  Returning to his plants, he found the three Jersey nitwits that followed the Flash examining the content of his van.  One of them had been bitten by one of the plants and while Burton admonished the three, the pitcher plant had grown to monstrous size and taken on features of the Toxicohedron.  It rampaged through the office and was beginning to eat the workers there until the timely arrival of the Flash, who rescued the staff and used an axe and high speed to dismember the plant.  In the ensuing confusion, the other plants cleaned out the safe.

Over the next several days, more bizarre plant-based crimes ensured.  Back at the Burton Greenhouse, the Maldita Toxicohedron had grown to enormous size, filling the room it was housed in.  Demanding even more, it charged Burton with recruiting criminals to enact its goals and building a car it could travel in.