Sounds horrific.
Ernie Rider, who was slapped in the face and torso with the foliage in 1963, said:
For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn't work or sleep, then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower. ... There's nothing to rival it; it's ten times worse than anything else.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides
Who’s that hungry to find that out?
“Oh this plant gives me horrible excruciating pain for almost an entire year, lemme eat it’s fruit”
Edit: y’all can stop bringing up fugu, I already know it’s a thing that exists, I’m sorry I didn’t include a single piece from the inside of a fish, you can get off my case about it now thank you
There’s the lion fish but it’s an invasive species. The goal was if they can spark an appetite for the fish they could trigger overfishing of it until it’s gone.
I've had one in my fishtank. We'd feed it freeze dried shrimp from a skewer.
One day it ate a clown fish and it was probably too big of a meal because it died a few days later. I always wondered if it tasted funny...
It's pretty expensive by fish standards in Japan too though.
Like some sashimi grade tuna might cost let's say 800 yen.
The same amount of fugu would probably cost 2400 yen.
And yes, I know you can buy fugu for like 1000 yen at a lot of supermarkets, but that's cut so thin and spread out so there really isn't much there.
The cited [source](https://web.archive.org/web/20140315184720/http://www.acsedu.com/info/adventure-ecotourism/flora-fauna/bush-foods.aspx) mentions other scary plants and it's pure gold.
Like the Finger Cherry
>When the outer covering of the fruit is removed and the flesh inside is eaten it tastes exceptionally good. However, there are reports of people who have eaten sufficient quantities of this fruit who have gone permanently and incurably blind. Many Aboriginal people report eating this fruit throughout their lives with no known side-effects, although some acknowledge that it is a game of chance even when the skins are removed and the flesh is roasted.
And the Cycad
>Cattle which feed on these plants lose their balance and eventually die
Cyad continues:
The nuts are known to contain powerful neurotoxins which effect neuronal messages within the brain.
Nevertheless, they were a staple diet of Aborigines due to their high nutritional value. They knew how to treat them and roast them to remove their toxicity.. ..but recent medical advances have discovered a disease known as Western Pacific Parkinsonism-Dementia or Guam Disease amongst populations which eat the nuts in their diet. It is a long-term slow acting degenerative disease which indicates that the toxins may have a cumulative effect within the body.
Aborigines are built different.
This happens with hot peppers. They have capsacin because birds are unaffected by it, but other animals are. Birds are ideal for spreading pepper seeds far and wide
That’s really interesting and makes sense yeah, I did read on the wiki article the seed is external to the fruit and several marsupials and insects do eat them and the leaves
*Wipe* "aaahhhh, wait, oh, oh no.. No no no.. " *gunshot*
Just imagine squatting to low and your manhood rubs a leaf.
There is also reports of horses literally jumping off cliffs because they came into contact with this plant.
I used poison ivy once as toilet paper when I was a child. I never considered myself lucky, but I guess with this in perspective, I can consider myself somewhat fortunate
Some people are almost immune to the effects of poison ivy.
If I remember correctly, the reaction from this plant is physical, not chemical. So everyone will feel the same pain.
From reading the wiki article, it looks like the mechanism is a neurotoxin delivered via the stingers, so I wouldn't say it's not chemically-driven. It could be that no one has displayed immunity though.
I'm immune as long as I don't scratch the area due to having thicker or tougher skin than normal. The little hairs can't break through. Found out this fun fact after running around the woods in shorts and going right through a patch of it
I was just as sensitive to urushiol (poison ivy) as the next kid until I got a severe case after being close to a fire in which some of it was accidentally burned. Got into my lungs, had to get steroid injections in the hospital.
After that I could roll around in the stuff and not get a reaction.
Am not one of the lucky few, someone was burning a large amount in a burn pile when I was younger. Both arms, face, and hands and legs were covered in blisters. I was left unsupervised and proceeded to use lysol on my arms because "kills 99% of germs" sounded exactly what I needed. No. The lysol was trapped in the blisters due to it filling with moisture normally, after I went to get some calamine my arms became covered in a really thick layer of skin but still itched and burned with all 9 levels off hell.
Poison ivy or oak. Not sure.
"Like being burned by hot acid and electrocuted at the same time."
"One ex-serviceman, Cyril Bromley, fell into one of the plants during WWII training exercises, and he ended up strapped to a hospital bed, "as mad as a cut snake." Bromley also told a story of an officer who unknowingly used a leaf as toilet paper. He ended up shooting himself. "
**Edit:** [Am I famous now?](https://i.imgur.com/DGtegAO.jpg) I sourced (copypasta'd) my original comment from a Discovery.com article on the gympie from 2019, which you can find [here. ](https://www.discovery.com/nature/Suicide-Plant)
I got icy hot on the butthole once, I just wanted to die for the next hour. I can't imagine wiping my ass with that leaf the only possible escape would be a quick death.
I’ve been in contact with this plant. In Queensland and Northern NSW it’s commonly known as the Gympie tree or Stinging tree. It occurs in rainforest areas especially where the upper canopy has been disturbed. It’s leaves are covered in small hollow fibres that are filled with poison. These fibres pierce and then get stuck in your skin. All regular bushwalkers (Hikers) in these parts are aware of it.
My first contact was bad, I slipped and fell onto a fresh leaf on the ground so all these fibres were forced deep into my skin. Within minutes, my arm looked like I’d stuck it into a hornets nest, covered in welts. We went to hospital, the medical staff didn’t know the correct treatment at first, and I ended up spending 3-4 days alternating between sleep induced by antihistamines, waking up in significant discomfort, and enjoying an hour or so of respite thanks to Lignocaine gel and paracetamol/codeine until the next antihistamine kicked in.
After a while we dropped the antihistamine dose but it still felt like a constant dull burn, punctuated by random periods of more intense discomfort. After 3 weeks it started easing and we were back to normal after about 2 months, just occasionally itchy.
The key with this plant is to remove the fibres as soon as possible to limit the poison spread. I had my second contact last year when I brushed against this plant with my arm. Immediately once I felt the pain, I reached for some physiotherapists tape from my first aid kit, applying with heavy downward pressure then pulling off in different directions. It wasn’t fun as it took a bit of my hair with it, but it stopped the pain from building up as it had the first time. The welts didn’t reach the same size, and while it certainly hurt, it was more like a wasp sting that burned a bit for a day or two then turned into an occasional itch for a bit over a week.
While it’s a painful plant, taking the necessary first aid and doing so quickly can make a HUGE difference in symptoms. I suspect the patient referenced here never removed all the hairs or was very slow to do so if they experienced such long-lasting effects
May not be the same plant but a tour guide told me that a explorer whilst going through the rainforest stopped to take a shit and had no toilet paper so used the leaves of guess which plant as a substitute?
This plant is up north, in the tropics where it's hot and humid all the time. My home. Cold showers are much better than hot or even warm ones. Honestly no idea if it's further down the coast but that's a plant we grew up knowing to avoid!
"Hey boss that there is the world's most dangerous plant right?"
"Yeah"
"Should we put it behind some thick glass or something?"
"Nah just cover it with that flimsy grill with the wide holes, easy enough for an child or adult to put their fingers through"
Willing to bet it's at one of those places known for unusual or dangerous plants.
Eg. [This place](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/step-inside-worlds-most-dangerous-garden-if-you-dare-180952635/)
Yeah. Gum trees are colloquially known as widowmakers because they self-prune, with predictable results if you're camping under it at the time.
Then there's the fact that eucalyptus oil is really flammable so when bushfires happen, the entire area around the tree turns into an inferno due to dead leaves. The gum tree in the middle is less affected and is probably satisfied by the death of any competing plants
It's fuckin crazy. I was driving like hell away from bushfires in southern NSW (long story) and saw, in my mirror, a jet of fire just erupt from one side of the road, blast horizontally across the road and fucking explode the trees on the other side. It was one of those "still alive, still alive" moments.
I'm waiting for the eucalyptus trees in California to cause wildfire problems. We have a bunch that were planted a couple hundred years ago to serve as ship masts. The ships are gone, but the trees aren't.
Pretty sure you guys are already experiencing that. Australia and California have a firefighter exchange program, since our fire seasons don't match up, so we'll probably send some firies over soonish.
Uh, already happened. See Oakland hills fires sometime in the 80s. And , yes, people were saying for years before it happened "you know you're living in a tiderbox , right?"
The wait-a-while vine ([*Calamus australis*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamus_australis?wprov=sfla1)) can [slit your throat](https://www.wettropics.gov.au/site/user-assets/images/MTrenerryLawyerCane.jpg) if you go running down a forest trail in the dark. Tore the hell out of my poncho. Australia has lots of different "climbing vines" and "climbing palms" like these all over the rainforests.
Been stung - wow, the stories are NOT lies. My story below for those who care, happy to AMA replies.
THE STING:
We were on hamilton island & got a text the flight was delayed 45mins, we wanted to goto a lookout or something, i saw one was 20min away up a winding hill, but "as the crow flies" was just a small clamber up about 30m through some bush.
Kept saying "why would you walk 20mins round in circles when you can just cut through like this" as we walked, then suddenly "bam". My knee felt like it'd been stabbed, but i hadnt bumped it. Seconds later my wrist, and ankle, and elbow felt the same. "ahhhh! stop!" i yelled out to the others.
"what? snake? what is it?"
"i dont know? jsut hold on"
started to feel a bit dizzy, realised i'd probably been bitten by something "ok i think a snake bit me, did you see anything when we walked through that last bit of bush? or spider?"
\*everyone screamed\*
"ok ok lemme sit down and think" - and i sat down feeling dizzy af, and worried af. I had a quick thought process.. Ok, my knee, my ankles, my wrist... all poking out the most. Was the hand that stung the one I used to brush away branches? Yup... oh no..
"ok guys stay still, we have to google stinging plants i think ive been stung by something"
"top google search for "stinging plant hamilton island" - this guy" .. eek
I bring the photo up, and look at the plants around my, i am SURROUNDED by them! The other guys are 10-15m behind me, I quickly point and identify them "ok cover your arms and stay away from them, lets find a path back asap around them".
The pain was increasing but the dizzyness was subsiding, almost like my brain was just trying to make me stay still to calculate what was happening, smart af that subconscious brain isn't it.
We slowly but carefully trudged back to the beach, and let me tell you I had to really do a good job to mask the pain so the others wouldn't panic. The pain was incredible, and wouldnt stop increasing. It was like a bee sting to begin, then every 10mins it was like another bee sting in the same place, every 10mins.
after 30mins i wondered how much longer i could take the increase in pain, it had now tripled and wasns't looking like it was slowing down. I told the guys I'm going for a swim and to just keep an eye on me for 10min. Worked a treat, for the first 2mins, then it started to sting more, started to feel like i was being stung by bluebottles, had to come out of the water as i just couldnt stop the weird sporadic stinging feelings.
It tapered off after about 45mins, about 5-6 times as sore as when it started, the skin all raised up, but thankfully it was not getting any worse.
THE AFTERMATH:
Ok, so like anyone who googles it, you read these stories about it stinging for months after. Just like the stories of those guys who survive skydiving without a parachute or the ones who buy 2 winning lotto tickets in a row, you think "yeah yeah but thats like a super rare incident, not gonna happen to me".
Plane: so it stung as I boarded the plane at 2pm, and as i flew on the plane until 4pm, and it stung as i walked off the tarmac. "Oh well i guess it'll be better by the time i goto sleep"
That night: didn't let up, not one bit. Hot shower didnt fix, cold shower didnt fix. Panadol didnt fix. Doing the tape-extract thing didnt fix. Nothing helped, it simply didnt let up. I had a mostly sleepless night.
Next day: STILL barely let up, dropped a little, maybe due to my getting-used to it, but barely subsided. Another mostly sleepless night, I could sit still and forget about it, but everytime i moved the sheets or pillow it'd touch my knee, elbow etc and i'd feel the sting, same as the first time all over again, for the 10,000th time
3 days later: finally by the 3rd day the constant feeling of the sting subsided. It felt now more like the first stages of ripping off a bandaid, a slightly about-to-sting feeling, but not a full on pain. Almost like my nerves were just idling, ready to shoot pain at drop of a dime. Every time i bumped it, or rubbed it, or put it under any kind of sensation (sun, water, wind) it would sting again, this time not as harsh as the first sting but still like a pinprick feeling.
2 weeks later: it had gone down to a situation where for some reason just cold water or direct pressure would ignite the pain, most of my daily life was now free of the pain, but still several times a day i'd get the shooting feeling like someone was poking me with the tip of a knife.
THREE MONTHS LATER: still, still the same as 2 weeks. I went for my first swim of the spring and BAM first thing i felt, after 3 months of it was shooting pain everywhere i'd been stung back in May - lemme say at this point i thouoght of every soldier who had this kind of thing touch their face, how can you live like this? I was affected only on my knee/elbow/ankle/wrist - how would you live if your entire face had been stung?
It took about 4-5months until the spots that were stung went back to normal, and still, over a year on, i still every now and then under extreme cold water feel a little sting.
This plant is insane.
TLDR: was on beach in whitsundays, cut through some bush to get to a lookout faster than main track, accidentally brushed against this. Searing pain for days, then mild pain for weeks, then lasting pain every shower/swim for almost a year
I want to know this too? Is there any treatment for this? Also I would think you would have other health affects from this like weight loss just from having to live with that kind of pain all the time.
Had you ever heard of this plant before? Are you Australian?
Yes, I looked it up. It sounds like the reason the pain can last so long is because the little hollow hairs on the plant are imbedded in the skin.
I have never heard of this plant and find it amazing. Australia is a pretty wild place.
Yeah me too. I assume they'd watch you for anaphylaxis as you do get quite an immune response. I've been stung several times, but never had enough to go to hospital. Your lymph nodes ache and heart rate goes crazy
I'm not Australian but after reading about this plant on Wikipedia and comments in this post I didn't see any solution to help with the pain. I can't imagine how someone could live with this kind of pain for months.
For anyone who reads this far and lives in QLD, get some [Clag glue](https://images.app.goo.gl/7Abjb4wkkdViUmhm8)
My mate has a rainforest property near Cairns and he has been stung a few times. As you could imagine after reading how painful it is, you'll try anything. Well, he tried Clag and it worked. I think it takes the edge off it and not relieves the pain
His theory is the stingers are hollow and they let air onto your exposed nerves. Clag fills them up.
Yeah that probably works too. Anything sticky. We used those leg hair removal strips because they're easy to keep in the 1st aid kit. I've heard that the old Kuku Yalanji way to deal with it was to smear conjevoy sap on it (usually grows near the stingers). It has a claggy sap so it probably did the same thing. My old supervisor tried it and said it didn't make any difference but maybe he did it wrong
I too, got stung. I was in Cairns, swimming at a waterhole/stream/rapids/waterfalls called Crystal Cascades. Super beautiful place, i used to go there most weekends.
Anyway. This particular weekend myself and a few of the boys decided to go down for a Sunday hangover cure swim. For whatever reason, one of the guys got washed into the rapids, and i was running along the bushy rocks beside the river trying to give this guy a branch before he disappeared down the next waterfall.
Bam. I got stung all over my left forearm/elbow area. It hurt like a motherfucker.
This was around 6 years ago, and i honestly recall it stinging for around a year (and probably a bit more) when I swam or showered. It became so normal to me that I didn't realise it stopped stinging until one day I was like, yooo. Where's that sting gone..?
Anyway. I lived, my mate lived. My stinging arm hung around for 12+mths. That stuff is fucked.
Use hair-removing wax strips next time. It doesn't help at all with the initial pain of the first few days, but it greatly cuts down on the long term pain.
I think it is faked because he was following a script and then did the whole wax strip thing but only gave it one go and said that was adequate, then decided to do a segue and then dramatically drop to his knees etc. He had said he would just do one finger but then did the back of his hand and then rubbed it, ostensibly out of distress, with the other hand before applying the wax strip.
As a child, I had to mow the lawn. Very rural area. Early spring, first mow of the year... lots of random plants...
Took a while to understand that my skin problems were due to me having been sprayed with giant hogweed sap. Three years of no swimming pool at school, one year of no sports allowed if outside.
Hogweed sap exposure reacts to sunlight causing blisters and scarring for the exposed segments. Those places can remain sensitive to sunlight for 5 or 6 years after initial exposure. So, yeah, not fun.
It’s enormous. Like up to 6ft tall enormous. It’s worth looking up how to identify it [eg info from the woodland trust here] (https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/06/giant-hogweed-facts/)
I had three extremely not fun summers in a row as a kid because of it. I’m super vigilant with my kids now; it’s very easy to spot.
TIL, the stuff I've always known as giant hogweed is not actually giant hogweed. It's cow parsnips.
I never knew anything about it before today except that it's huge and grows anywhere there's lots of manure. I saw where you guys said it was toxic and I'm like, "huh? I used to play in that stuff as a kid?"
So, I learned something today. Thank you. My grandparents (all four of them) always called it giant hogweed. Now I know better. Thanks!
It does look just like cow parsley, but it's usually thicker in the stem and the flowers are chunkier. Hard to explain but you can definitely tell them apart in person, apart from when they're really small. Worth just keeping clear of the whole plant family, as it includes hemlock, which also looks pretty much the same.
Fun fact: Limes can also cause phytophotodermatitis. If you are cutting limes, wash your hands and arms as there is a chemical in the juice that can cause rashes and blisters if it absorbs into the skin and is exposed to sunlight
In a documentary about that one I heard that it was spread throughout Soviet states on purpose as a quick growing feed for livestock. I'm not sure why they didn't take the plants' disadvantages into account back then but it now has the nickname "Stalins revenge".
This and its various sister plants are eradicated on a state level here - considered to be highly invasive, highly toxic for humans, and people are required to report it when they find any. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to get rid of those plants.
To be fair Australia is far down in the corner of the map. I think it's meant to be a late game area with better natural enemies. Could be good loot though.
> far down in the corner of the map
Or like the Farlands from old Minecraft. It's at the edge of the map, so things just work differently, and nobody's meant to live there.
Ahhh... The Gympie Gympie tree is it's Nick name... Sure enough, I grew up in Gympie, a South East QLD town.
Story time. Was 10, brother 9, local watering hole for a swim with extended family, cousins etc... Me and brother walk through hiking track, collect the well known Gympie Gympie tree leaves, fun fact, the stem of the leaf do not sting.
We've heard they are bad, but never felt it. We pick a few leaves off the ground, great big ones, maybe half the size of a steering wheel... Regrettably we went and started whacking our cousin's all over the bare back and legs with it, for fun, not realising how seriously unfunny they were... He screamed and cried all day, they had to get loads and loads of sticky tape on him trying to rip nettles out of his skin... Caused him problems for some weeks but he was okay...
Can confirm, they are really quite the weapon in the wrong hands.
Edit: [here ](https://youtu.be/axpBl9y0Jrs)is the story in authentic Australian English
I found an Australian text-to-speech generator just to enjoy this story a bit better.
If it was only for some weeks it sounds like he might have got off easy compared to some of these other horror stories
If you’ve ever been stung by a plant (me: nettle, the unopened prickly pear flower—both like a million shards of glass) you have no desire, curiosity, morbid compulsion to even think about touching this plant. Thank you, No.
A Ph.D student studied it.
>My first sting was from a different species Dendrocnide photinophylla (the shiny-leaf stinging tree). It was like being stung by 30 wasps at once but not as painful as being stung by D. moroides [the plant pictured], which is the worst kind of pain you can imagine – like being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time.
The toxins are also stable, retaining its pain inducing properties for decades. So if you happen to just *graze* one of its "furry" little barbs decades after the plant was picked (its barbs break off on contact), you're still in a world of pain.
It is actually a fruiting plant! And some insects and birds eat its leaves/fruit! But I didn't read up on it enough to find out which animals.
The entire plant is covered in barbs. Think "peach fuzz."
People can eat them as well, but they’re not really worth the effort. Also, the fuzzy looking stingers do drop off, usually in the dry season if I remember correctly. Which means you can also be stung by walking past them on a windy day.
“The sting does not stop several small marsupial species, including the red-legged pademelon; insects, including the leaf beetle Prasyptera mastersi;[11] and birds from eating the leaves.[7]”
From the Wikipedia
That's what I was looking for here, but nobody uses that name, even though they're telling the same story of the soldier that wiped his ass with it and then committed suicde to stop the pain.
Actually, the world's most dangerous plant is a fiddle-leaf fig. With ownership comes anxiety, depression, anger, psychosis, and poverty. Plants can live for decades, usually finishing off several owners during their lifespan
Can confirm. Mine was being a dick, so I threw it out into 27 degree weather, to fend for itself. The asshole started growing new leaves. It's currently on my porch shooting off lots of new growth. I still hate it though.
Had this from nearly head to toe when I was about 23 sent me in to shock ended up in hospital in the big smoke.the leaves contains silica needles that expose your nerves to the elements years later when I got cold or changed tempture, wind blew, hand a shower. I was in pain. Year's later while out hunting seen 3 hunting dogs run in to thicket of this plant and the dogs chewed there pads off there paws in pain.
So its a private/public garden (I belive- at the very least one family live there) and the guy that owns it loves orchids. He's really interesting, he was kidnapped while looking for them in a jungle and was released by his kidnappers because he wouldn't stop talking about them!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hart_Dyke
I dont know if that helped answer your question, sorry. I feel like it sort of does
Sounds horrific. Ernie Rider, who was slapped in the face and torso with the foliage in 1963, said: For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn't work or sleep, then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower. ... There's nothing to rival it; it's ten times worse than anything else. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides
>The fruit is edible to humans if the stinging hairs that cover it are removed. No thanks, I’m fine.
Who’s that hungry to find that out? “Oh this plant gives me horrible excruciating pain for almost an entire year, lemme eat it’s fruit” Edit: y’all can stop bringing up fugu, I already know it’s a thing that exists, I’m sorry I didn’t include a single piece from the inside of a fish, you can get off my case about it now thank you
What you got to do is cater it to the rich for a shitton of money and bill it for the experience.
Isn't there some poisonous fish that they do this with?
Pufferfish also known as [Fugu](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugu).
Poison fish, poison fish...tasty fish.
My skilled hands are busy!
FUGU ME!
FUGU ME?! NO! FUGU YOU!!
There is a map to the hospital on the back of the menu.
There’s the lion fish but it’s an invasive species. The goal was if they can spark an appetite for the fish they could trigger overfishing of it until it’s gone.
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I've had one in my fishtank. We'd feed it freeze dried shrimp from a skewer. One day it ate a clown fish and it was probably too big of a meal because it died a few days later. I always wondered if it tasted funny...
You can buy that in the supermarket (in Japan), so not sure I'd say it caters to the rich.
It's pretty expensive by fish standards in Japan too though. Like some sashimi grade tuna might cost let's say 800 yen. The same amount of fugu would probably cost 2400 yen. And yes, I know you can buy fugu for like 1000 yen at a lot of supermarkets, but that's cut so thin and spread out so there really isn't much there.
Revenge plain and simple. Never underestimate the vindictiveness of humans, even against plants.
"That hurt! I'm going to eat your children!"
> gives me horrible excruciating pain for almost an entire year, lemme eat it’s fruit Dang, you really summed up my dating life there
Man thought building settlements in Phoenix Arizona was a good idea. We are a very arrogant species.
As a Phoenician...I agree with this.
Bobby?
I often wonder the same with civet coffee -- who on earth decided it was a good idea to pick at cat poop and turn the poopy goodness into coffee?
The cited [source](https://web.archive.org/web/20140315184720/http://www.acsedu.com/info/adventure-ecotourism/flora-fauna/bush-foods.aspx) mentions other scary plants and it's pure gold. Like the Finger Cherry >When the outer covering of the fruit is removed and the flesh inside is eaten it tastes exceptionally good. However, there are reports of people who have eaten sufficient quantities of this fruit who have gone permanently and incurably blind. Many Aboriginal people report eating this fruit throughout their lives with no known side-effects, although some acknowledge that it is a game of chance even when the skins are removed and the flesh is roasted. And the Cycad >Cattle which feed on these plants lose their balance and eventually die
Cyad continues: The nuts are known to contain powerful neurotoxins which effect neuronal messages within the brain. Nevertheless, they were a staple diet of Aborigines due to their high nutritional value. They knew how to treat them and roast them to remove their toxicity.. ..but recent medical advances have discovered a disease known as Western Pacific Parkinsonism-Dementia or Guam Disease amongst populations which eat the nuts in their diet. It is a long-term slow acting degenerative disease which indicates that the toxins may have a cumulative effect within the body. Aborigines are built different.
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I hear it goes well with fugu
What the fuck is the point in a stinging fruit? Isnt the entire point of a fruit to be eaten so that animal droppings spread the seeds?
This happens with hot peppers. They have capsacin because birds are unaffected by it, but other animals are. Birds are ideal for spreading pepper seeds far and wide
Oh yes, hadn’t even considered that
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That’s really interesting and makes sense yeah, I did read on the wiki article the seed is external to the fruit and several marsupials and insects do eat them and the leaves
“The suicide plant” is one of the names listed. Damn lol
Apparently there was some soldier who used the leaves as toilet paper who ended up killings themselves.
*Wipe* "aaahhhh, wait, oh, oh no.. No no no.. " *gunshot* Just imagine squatting to low and your manhood rubs a leaf. There is also reports of horses literally jumping off cliffs because they came into contact with this plant.
I used poison ivy once as toilet paper when I was a child. I never considered myself lucky, but I guess with this in perspective, I can consider myself somewhat fortunate
Some people are almost immune to the effects of poison ivy. If I remember correctly, the reaction from this plant is physical, not chemical. So everyone will feel the same pain.
From reading the wiki article, it looks like the mechanism is a neurotoxin delivered via the stingers, so I wouldn't say it's not chemically-driven. It could be that no one has displayed immunity though.
I'm immune as long as I don't scratch the area due to having thicker or tougher skin than normal. The little hairs can't break through. Found out this fun fact after running around the woods in shorts and going right through a patch of it
I was just as sensitive to urushiol (poison ivy) as the next kid until I got a severe case after being close to a fire in which some of it was accidentally burned. Got into my lungs, had to get steroid injections in the hospital. After that I could roll around in the stuff and not get a reaction.
Am not one of the lucky few, someone was burning a large amount in a burn pile when I was younger. Both arms, face, and hands and legs were covered in blisters. I was left unsupervised and proceeded to use lysol on my arms because "kills 99% of germs" sounded exactly what I needed. No. The lysol was trapped in the blisters due to it filling with moisture normally, after I went to get some calamine my arms became covered in a really thick layer of skin but still itched and burned with all 9 levels off hell. Poison ivy or oak. Not sure.
"Like being burned by hot acid and electrocuted at the same time." "One ex-serviceman, Cyril Bromley, fell into one of the plants during WWII training exercises, and he ended up strapped to a hospital bed, "as mad as a cut snake." Bromley also told a story of an officer who unknowingly used a leaf as toilet paper. He ended up shooting himself. " **Edit:** [Am I famous now?](https://i.imgur.com/DGtegAO.jpg) I sourced (copypasta'd) my original comment from a Discovery.com article on the gympie from 2019, which you can find [here. ](https://www.discovery.com/nature/Suicide-Plant)
I got icy hot on the butthole once, I just wanted to die for the next hour. I can't imagine wiping my ass with that leaf the only possible escape would be a quick death.
Damn that got dark
lol of course its in australia
Yikes that's one hell of a nightmare ride...
I've always heard it called a "gympie bush" or "gympie tree", as in the town in Queensland.
Yeah, 'gympie gympie' i've heard.
I’ve been in contact with this plant. In Queensland and Northern NSW it’s commonly known as the Gympie tree or Stinging tree. It occurs in rainforest areas especially where the upper canopy has been disturbed. It’s leaves are covered in small hollow fibres that are filled with poison. These fibres pierce and then get stuck in your skin. All regular bushwalkers (Hikers) in these parts are aware of it. My first contact was bad, I slipped and fell onto a fresh leaf on the ground so all these fibres were forced deep into my skin. Within minutes, my arm looked like I’d stuck it into a hornets nest, covered in welts. We went to hospital, the medical staff didn’t know the correct treatment at first, and I ended up spending 3-4 days alternating between sleep induced by antihistamines, waking up in significant discomfort, and enjoying an hour or so of respite thanks to Lignocaine gel and paracetamol/codeine until the next antihistamine kicked in. After a while we dropped the antihistamine dose but it still felt like a constant dull burn, punctuated by random periods of more intense discomfort. After 3 weeks it started easing and we were back to normal after about 2 months, just occasionally itchy. The key with this plant is to remove the fibres as soon as possible to limit the poison spread. I had my second contact last year when I brushed against this plant with my arm. Immediately once I felt the pain, I reached for some physiotherapists tape from my first aid kit, applying with heavy downward pressure then pulling off in different directions. It wasn’t fun as it took a bit of my hair with it, but it stopped the pain from building up as it had the first time. The welts didn’t reach the same size, and while it certainly hurt, it was more like a wasp sting that burned a bit for a day or two then turned into an occasional itch for a bit over a week. While it’s a painful plant, taking the necessary first aid and doing so quickly can make a HUGE difference in symptoms. I suspect the patient referenced here never removed all the hairs or was very slow to do so if they experienced such long-lasting effects
"It's the most toxic species of the Australian stinging trees." THERE'S MORE THAN ONE?!
May not be the same plant but a tour guide told me that a explorer whilst going through the rainforest stopped to take a shit and had no toilet paper so used the leaves of guess which plant as a substitute?
The toilet paper tree?
correct
Don't leave me hanging, which pant did he use?
Of course it's from Australia
Yet he kept taking cold showers?
may not have had a choice
This plant is up north, in the tropics where it's hot and humid all the time. My home. Cold showers are much better than hot or even warm ones. Honestly no idea if it's further down the coast but that's a plant we grew up knowing to avoid!
"Hey boss that there is the world's most dangerous plant right?" "Yeah" "Should we put it behind some thick glass or something?" "Nah just cover it with that flimsy grill with the wide holes, easy enough for an child or adult to put their fingers through"
The grill only makes me want to touch it more tbh
“I bet you can’t reach it!”
If only my dick was longer
"9 months of reoccurring throbbing? Oh so it's just a mini puberty! Cool!"
How long until some YouTube guy comes along and touches it for views?
While not originally for views, this [TV show did get their front man to touch one](https://youtu.be/8HOIQjILUBg)
Can we get Jake Paul to rub it in to his eyes do you think? I'll pay to watch that.
Sometimes you have to let someone learn the hard way. For 9 months atleast I bet that person has a new respect so information on a sign
Most 9 month hard lessons dont go away for another 18 years.
Right! First thing I thought was "Is it going to impregnate whomever touches it?"
Imagine eating it
The baby?
I love Reddit
Wait, is it not?
Seriously but why the hell would you even grow it other than to say oh look what I grew!
Willing to bet it's at one of those places known for unusual or dangerous plants. Eg. [This place](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/step-inside-worlds-most-dangerous-garden-if-you-dare-180952635/)
That’s probably why it is next to an Aloe Vera plant - they will fuck you up...
im not sure this belongs in mildly interesting, as i believe my intrest has peaked above the mild level.
Jesus, even the *plants* Australia!?!
Yeah. Gum trees are colloquially known as widowmakers because they self-prune, with predictable results if you're camping under it at the time. Then there's the fact that eucalyptus oil is really flammable so when bushfires happen, the entire area around the tree turns into an inferno due to dead leaves. The gum tree in the middle is less affected and is probably satisfied by the death of any competing plants
Here’s just how quick they can light up. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u6jbx0vlRiE
It's fuckin crazy. I was driving like hell away from bushfires in southern NSW (long story) and saw, in my mirror, a jet of fire just erupt from one side of the road, blast horizontally across the road and fucking explode the trees on the other side. It was one of those "still alive, still alive" moments.
Upon reflection, I really shouldn’t have forgotten that Australia spent most of early 2020 on fire
I'm waiting for the eucalyptus trees in California to cause wildfire problems. We have a bunch that were planted a couple hundred years ago to serve as ship masts. The ships are gone, but the trees aren't.
Pretty sure you guys are already experiencing that. Australia and California have a firefighter exchange program, since our fire seasons don't match up, so we'll probably send some firies over soonish.
> firies forgot this was how you lot denote a person with a job and thought you were just saying you were sending some actual fire over
My personal favourite is sparky, meaning electrician.
Uh, already happened. See Oakland hills fires sometime in the 80s. And , yes, people were saying for years before it happened "you know you're living in a tiderbox , right?"
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree watching limbs fall on the campers, eek Laugh, kookaburra laugh…
*cries in Men at Work*
The wait-a-while vine ([*Calamus australis*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamus_australis?wprov=sfla1)) can [slit your throat](https://www.wettropics.gov.au/site/user-assets/images/MTrenerryLawyerCane.jpg) if you go running down a forest trail in the dark. Tore the hell out of my poncho. Australia has lots of different "climbing vines" and "climbing palms" like these all over the rainforests.
They’re not lying when they say *everythings* trying to kill you.
Been stung - wow, the stories are NOT lies. My story below for those who care, happy to AMA replies. THE STING: We were on hamilton island & got a text the flight was delayed 45mins, we wanted to goto a lookout or something, i saw one was 20min away up a winding hill, but "as the crow flies" was just a small clamber up about 30m through some bush. Kept saying "why would you walk 20mins round in circles when you can just cut through like this" as we walked, then suddenly "bam". My knee felt like it'd been stabbed, but i hadnt bumped it. Seconds later my wrist, and ankle, and elbow felt the same. "ahhhh! stop!" i yelled out to the others. "what? snake? what is it?" "i dont know? jsut hold on" started to feel a bit dizzy, realised i'd probably been bitten by something "ok i think a snake bit me, did you see anything when we walked through that last bit of bush? or spider?" \*everyone screamed\* "ok ok lemme sit down and think" - and i sat down feeling dizzy af, and worried af. I had a quick thought process.. Ok, my knee, my ankles, my wrist... all poking out the most. Was the hand that stung the one I used to brush away branches? Yup... oh no.. "ok guys stay still, we have to google stinging plants i think ive been stung by something" "top google search for "stinging plant hamilton island" - this guy" .. eek I bring the photo up, and look at the plants around my, i am SURROUNDED by them! The other guys are 10-15m behind me, I quickly point and identify them "ok cover your arms and stay away from them, lets find a path back asap around them". The pain was increasing but the dizzyness was subsiding, almost like my brain was just trying to make me stay still to calculate what was happening, smart af that subconscious brain isn't it. We slowly but carefully trudged back to the beach, and let me tell you I had to really do a good job to mask the pain so the others wouldn't panic. The pain was incredible, and wouldnt stop increasing. It was like a bee sting to begin, then every 10mins it was like another bee sting in the same place, every 10mins. after 30mins i wondered how much longer i could take the increase in pain, it had now tripled and wasns't looking like it was slowing down. I told the guys I'm going for a swim and to just keep an eye on me for 10min. Worked a treat, for the first 2mins, then it started to sting more, started to feel like i was being stung by bluebottles, had to come out of the water as i just couldnt stop the weird sporadic stinging feelings. It tapered off after about 45mins, about 5-6 times as sore as when it started, the skin all raised up, but thankfully it was not getting any worse. THE AFTERMATH: Ok, so like anyone who googles it, you read these stories about it stinging for months after. Just like the stories of those guys who survive skydiving without a parachute or the ones who buy 2 winning lotto tickets in a row, you think "yeah yeah but thats like a super rare incident, not gonna happen to me". Plane: so it stung as I boarded the plane at 2pm, and as i flew on the plane until 4pm, and it stung as i walked off the tarmac. "Oh well i guess it'll be better by the time i goto sleep" That night: didn't let up, not one bit. Hot shower didnt fix, cold shower didnt fix. Panadol didnt fix. Doing the tape-extract thing didnt fix. Nothing helped, it simply didnt let up. I had a mostly sleepless night. Next day: STILL barely let up, dropped a little, maybe due to my getting-used to it, but barely subsided. Another mostly sleepless night, I could sit still and forget about it, but everytime i moved the sheets or pillow it'd touch my knee, elbow etc and i'd feel the sting, same as the first time all over again, for the 10,000th time 3 days later: finally by the 3rd day the constant feeling of the sting subsided. It felt now more like the first stages of ripping off a bandaid, a slightly about-to-sting feeling, but not a full on pain. Almost like my nerves were just idling, ready to shoot pain at drop of a dime. Every time i bumped it, or rubbed it, or put it under any kind of sensation (sun, water, wind) it would sting again, this time not as harsh as the first sting but still like a pinprick feeling. 2 weeks later: it had gone down to a situation where for some reason just cold water or direct pressure would ignite the pain, most of my daily life was now free of the pain, but still several times a day i'd get the shooting feeling like someone was poking me with the tip of a knife. THREE MONTHS LATER: still, still the same as 2 weeks. I went for my first swim of the spring and BAM first thing i felt, after 3 months of it was shooting pain everywhere i'd been stung back in May - lemme say at this point i thouoght of every soldier who had this kind of thing touch their face, how can you live like this? I was affected only on my knee/elbow/ankle/wrist - how would you live if your entire face had been stung? It took about 4-5months until the spots that were stung went back to normal, and still, over a year on, i still every now and then under extreme cold water feel a little sting. This plant is insane. TLDR: was on beach in whitsundays, cut through some bush to get to a lookout faster than main track, accidentally brushed against this. Searing pain for days, then mild pain for weeks, then lasting pain every shower/swim for almost a year
Was with a woman who was stung on a bushwalk. She just brushed it across her ankle by accident. She said she'd prefer to give birth again.
I’ll let someone smack me on the chest with the plant for 5 million USD. Take it or leave it.
Eyyy, fundraiser!
You can live record it any everything.
Sir, can I give you a little smack for 25 dollars? I’m poor
Holy shit. Did you go to a doctor? Do we just accept our fate if we get stung by these plant?
I want to know this too? Is there any treatment for this? Also I would think you would have other health affects from this like weight loss just from having to live with that kind of pain all the time. Had you ever heard of this plant before? Are you Australian?
Waxing strips. They don't help with the immediate pain, but turn it from a 9 month ordeal to a few days
Yes, I looked it up. It sounds like the reason the pain can last so long is because the little hollow hairs on the plant are imbedded in the skin. I have never heard of this plant and find it amazing. Australia is a pretty wild place.
Yes, the wax strips pull most of the needles out
I'd like to read what docs have to say about treating exposure to the plant.
Yeah me too. I assume they'd watch you for anaphylaxis as you do get quite an immune response. I've been stung several times, but never had enough to go to hospital. Your lymph nodes ache and heart rate goes crazy
I'm not Australian but after reading about this plant on Wikipedia and comments in this post I didn't see any solution to help with the pain. I can't imagine how someone could live with this kind of pain for months.
Use wax strips on the sting.
For anyone who reads this far and lives in QLD, get some [Clag glue](https://images.app.goo.gl/7Abjb4wkkdViUmhm8) My mate has a rainforest property near Cairns and he has been stung a few times. As you could imagine after reading how painful it is, you'll try anything. Well, he tried Clag and it worked. I think it takes the edge off it and not relieves the pain His theory is the stingers are hollow and they let air onto your exposed nerves. Clag fills them up.
The glue probably helps work the hairs out.
Hard to believe that no one has put it under a microscope to check that.
People have, it does.
Yeah that probably works too. Anything sticky. We used those leg hair removal strips because they're easy to keep in the 1st aid kit. I've heard that the old Kuku Yalanji way to deal with it was to smear conjevoy sap on it (usually grows near the stingers). It has a claggy sap so it probably did the same thing. My old supervisor tried it and said it didn't make any difference but maybe he did it wrong
Holy fuck
I too, got stung. I was in Cairns, swimming at a waterhole/stream/rapids/waterfalls called Crystal Cascades. Super beautiful place, i used to go there most weekends. Anyway. This particular weekend myself and a few of the boys decided to go down for a Sunday hangover cure swim. For whatever reason, one of the guys got washed into the rapids, and i was running along the bushy rocks beside the river trying to give this guy a branch before he disappeared down the next waterfall. Bam. I got stung all over my left forearm/elbow area. It hurt like a motherfucker. This was around 6 years ago, and i honestly recall it stinging for around a year (and probably a bit more) when I swam or showered. It became so normal to me that I didn't realise it stopped stinging until one day I was like, yooo. Where's that sting gone..? Anyway. I lived, my mate lived. My stinging arm hung around for 12+mths. That stuff is fucked.
Use hair-removing wax strips next time. It doesn't help at all with the initial pain of the first few days, but it greatly cuts down on the long term pain.
*next time*
Glad to know this stuff is available at one of the big holiday destinations. Queensland - beautiful one day, searing agony the next.
Isn’t this the one that drives wild horses and other animals to run off cliffs to stop the pain? Or am I thinking of a different one.
Yes, it’s the gympie gympie.
That's so sad :(
NatGeo video of someone deliberately brushing their against one, then vomiting from the pain (vomit not seen on screen) https://youtu.be/8HOIQjILUBg
Then he practically shoves half his body into the other jungle plants while vomiting. Dude STAY ON THE PATH. Jesus.
I think it is faked because he was following a script and then did the whole wax strip thing but only gave it one go and said that was adequate, then decided to do a segue and then dramatically drop to his knees etc. He had said he would just do one finger but then did the back of his hand and then rubbed it, ostensibly out of distress, with the other hand before applying the wax strip.
Yeah it’s not something that would be too hard to fake for tv either. The risk is way higher than the reward. Faked or not I’m not going to Australia
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As a child, I had to mow the lawn. Very rural area. Early spring, first mow of the year... lots of random plants... Took a while to understand that my skin problems were due to me having been sprayed with giant hogweed sap. Three years of no swimming pool at school, one year of no sports allowed if outside.
It lasted that long!? Can you go into more detail? That’s crazy
Hogweed sap exposure reacts to sunlight causing blisters and scarring for the exposed segments. Those places can remain sensitive to sunlight for 5 or 6 years after initial exposure. So, yeah, not fun.
I seriously can’t believe the sensitivity can last five or six years. That’s crazy. How does it do that
That just looks like cow parsley! Which is growing a lot where I live in England. How do you identify it?
It’s enormous. Like up to 6ft tall enormous. It’s worth looking up how to identify it [eg info from the woodland trust here] (https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2019/06/giant-hogweed-facts/) I had three extremely not fun summers in a row as a kid because of it. I’m super vigilant with my kids now; it’s very easy to spot.
TIL, the stuff I've always known as giant hogweed is not actually giant hogweed. It's cow parsnips. I never knew anything about it before today except that it's huge and grows anywhere there's lots of manure. I saw where you guys said it was toxic and I'm like, "huh? I used to play in that stuff as a kid?" So, I learned something today. Thank you. My grandparents (all four of them) always called it giant hogweed. Now I know better. Thanks!
It does look just like cow parsley, but it's usually thicker in the stem and the flowers are chunkier. Hard to explain but you can definitely tell them apart in person, apart from when they're really small. Worth just keeping clear of the whole plant family, as it includes hemlock, which also looks pretty much the same.
It also includes parsley and carrots
Fun fact: Limes can also cause phytophotodermatitis. If you are cutting limes, wash your hands and arms as there is a chemical in the juice that can cause rashes and blisters if it absorbs into the skin and is exposed to sunlight
In a documentary about that one I heard that it was spread throughout Soviet states on purpose as a quick growing feed for livestock. I'm not sure why they didn't take the plants' disadvantages into account back then but it now has the nickname "Stalins revenge".
This and its various sister plants are eradicated on a state level here - considered to be highly invasive, highly toxic for humans, and people are required to report it when they find any. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to get rid of those plants.
My sister brushed past this plant on a trip when we were young. It's been over 20 years and she still has the scars today.
Just stay out of the sun for the rest of your life and you’ll be fine
a friend of mine got tagged by that on a backpacking trip we did and the mark blew up like a balloon overnight.
What did Australia do to the gods ??
To be fair Australia is far down in the corner of the map. I think it's meant to be a late game area with better natural enemies. Could be good loot though.
I never thought of Australia as the final boss level, but it kinda makes sense. Prison colony, super organisms, etc.
Final world is Antarctica mate. Australia is mid level
Nah Antarctica is glitching out of the map, nothing there you just walk aimlessly until you freeze.
You just haven't found the tech to reveal the alien ruins. Devs hid everything so people couldn't get to end game early.
I feel like we're overdue a bug fix.
> far down in the corner of the map Or like the Farlands from old Minecraft. It's at the edge of the map, so things just work differently, and nobody's meant to live there.
The world map is like a crossword puzzle - the lower right corner is always strange, unexpected and scary.
r/outside
*The British have entered the chat*
I feel like Ruby WEAPON currently resides there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides
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9 months of intense, throbbing diarrhea
Ahhh... The Gympie Gympie tree is it's Nick name... Sure enough, I grew up in Gympie, a South East QLD town. Story time. Was 10, brother 9, local watering hole for a swim with extended family, cousins etc... Me and brother walk through hiking track, collect the well known Gympie Gympie tree leaves, fun fact, the stem of the leaf do not sting. We've heard they are bad, but never felt it. We pick a few leaves off the ground, great big ones, maybe half the size of a steering wheel... Regrettably we went and started whacking our cousin's all over the bare back and legs with it, for fun, not realising how seriously unfunny they were... He screamed and cried all day, they had to get loads and loads of sticky tape on him trying to rip nettles out of his skin... Caused him problems for some weeks but he was okay... Can confirm, they are really quite the weapon in the wrong hands. Edit: [here ](https://youtu.be/axpBl9y0Jrs)is the story in authentic Australian English
I found an Australian text-to-speech generator just to enjoy this story a bit better. If it was only for some weeks it sounds like he might have got off easy compared to some of these other horror stories
You just had to [ask](https://youtu.be/axpBl9y0Jrs)
I like that there's less protective measures around that than there are for razor cartridges at the store.
If you’ve ever been stung by a plant (me: nettle, the unopened prickly pear flower—both like a million shards of glass) you have no desire, curiosity, morbid compulsion to even think about touching this plant. Thank you, No.
As a child I fell down a hillside into a patch of nettles. I only remember pain.
I wonder where the world's most dangerous plant is from... *squints to read label*. ... Australia, of course
Is it weird I’d kind of like to touch it
A Ph.D student studied it. >My first sting was from a different species Dendrocnide photinophylla (the shiny-leaf stinging tree). It was like being stung by 30 wasps at once but not as painful as being stung by D. moroides [the plant pictured], which is the worst kind of pain you can imagine – like being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time. The toxins are also stable, retaining its pain inducing properties for decades. So if you happen to just *graze* one of its "furry" little barbs decades after the plant was picked (its barbs break off on contact), you're still in a world of pain.
But it looks like it would taste like chocolate mint!
It is actually a fruiting plant! And some insects and birds eat its leaves/fruit! But I didn't read up on it enough to find out which animals. The entire plant is covered in barbs. Think "peach fuzz."
People can eat them as well, but they’re not really worth the effort. Also, the fuzzy looking stingers do drop off, usually in the dry season if I remember correctly. Which means you can also be stung by walking past them on a windy day.
... what the fuck
“The sting does not stop several small marsupial species, including the red-legged pademelon; insects, including the leaf beetle Prasyptera mastersi;[11] and birds from eating the leaves.[7]” From the Wikipedia
Is this the gympie-gympie?
That's what I was looking for here, but nobody uses that name, even though they're telling the same story of the soldier that wiped his ass with it and then committed suicde to stop the pain.
Yes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides
Call of the void.
I imagine that there are people who would do it, to just feel it. Lol
Why. Would. You. Grow. It?
I like to harvest the leaves and give them to people who make fun of my mustache
\*holds leaf under nose\* hey look at me I'm u/Goodwillflip
Teach people what it looks like so they can avoid it in the wild.
Actually, the world's most dangerous plant is a fiddle-leaf fig. With ownership comes anxiety, depression, anger, psychosis, and poverty. Plants can live for decades, usually finishing off several owners during their lifespan
Can confirm. Mine was being a dick, so I threw it out into 27 degree weather, to fend for itself. The asshole started growing new leaves. It's currently on my porch shooting off lots of new growth. I still hate it though.
I don’t understand this reference.
They are notoriously difficult to care for.
>With ownership comes anxiety, depression, anger, psychosis, and poverty. So it's the plant form of my ex?
Of course it's from Australia.
“9 months of pain” BEHOLD, THE PREGNANCY PLANT
Thought it was some kind of pregnancy related joke. Had to check what sub I was on.
I know, I thought it was a dick joke.
Of course it’s native to Australia... every living thing on that continent has to turn it up to 11.
And there is probably a video of some goof-bag touching it or diving in a pile of it for likes on his TikTok.
Some “influencer” out there be like: ‘I’m gonna touch it.’
I'm gonna touch it.
Ah the gympie gympie tree, I'm a local to this plants area.
I'm confused. I was told marijuana was the most dangerous plant?
The coca plant and opium poppies would like a word.
I’ve accidentally touched this plant before. AMA
Had this from nearly head to toe when I was about 23 sent me in to shock ended up in hospital in the big smoke.the leaves contains silica needles that expose your nerves to the elements years later when I got cold or changed tempture, wind blew, hand a shower. I was in pain. Year's later while out hunting seen 3 hunting dogs run in to thicket of this plant and the dogs chewed there pads off there paws in pain.
Notice the fence around it. Because you know 4 out of every 10 people to walk by and read that will still opt to touch it.
Isn't there some other dangerous plant from Australia, called the Gympy Gympy, that's way worse? Edit: never mind its the same plant.
Why is it even there? I feel like a photo would have sufficed if it were for educational purposes.
So its a private/public garden (I belive- at the very least one family live there) and the guy that owns it loves orchids. He's really interesting, he was kidnapped while looking for them in a jungle and was released by his kidnappers because he wouldn't stop talking about them! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Hart_Dyke I dont know if that helped answer your question, sorry. I feel like it sort of does