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Do Not Eat, Touch, or Even Inhale the Air Around the Manchineel Tree
- taralx 10y agoAdd this to the "Nature is Terrifying" list...
- chris_wot 10y agoSometimes nature fakes it. https://cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w1200/s/img.rt.com/files/2016.11/article/581b7fefc361888a2f8b46a1.jpg https://cdn.ampproject.org/ii/w1200/s/img.rt.com/files/2016.... Pretty harmless, but they've been known to drag away mice.
- josephcooney 10y agoGympie Gympie plant is also not nice. http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2009/06/gympie-gympie-once-stung,-never-forgotten/ http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-enviro...
- danieltillett 10y agoI have been stung by stinging trees and it is not pleasant (Australian understatement).
- riebschlager 10y agoEvery spring I google "poison ivy" so I can remember exactly what it looks like. And every summer, I get a poison ivy rash. Now that I know this tree exists, I have little doubt I'd die after a hike in the Caribbean.
- devbug 10y agoHave you tried not googling "poison ivy" in the spring?
- rosstex 10y agoWhat you don't know, can't kill you! Or so they say :)
- chris_wot 10y agoThe last time I said that I was told I will live a long life. I've never repeated this phrase since.
- maxerickson 10y agoEven better, try not being sensitive to urushiol.
- hyggyhhfdd 10y agohttps://xkcd.com/795/ https://xkcd.com/795/
- wadetandy 10y agoDefinitely thought this was going to be https://xkcd.com/443/ https://xkcd.com/443/
- richforrester 10y agoGoogled Poison Ivy - seems I'm in a different search bubble.
- MichaelApproved 10y agoHere's a handy video that can help you stay rash free next summer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oyoDRHpQK0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oyoDRHpQK0 Basic idea is that you need to clean yourself with a washcloth or loofah. The oil from the plant is like automotive grease. You need to scrub it off.
- semi-extrinsic 10y agoIDK about poison ivy, but for automotive grease, Dawn Ultra works wonders even without a scrub. Like my dad says, "you haven't been proper dirty till you've had to use Dawn as shampoo". Brake dust, OTOH, now there you need to scrub, preferrably with a stiff nail brush.
- athenot 10y agoYes soap will get rid of Urushiol and some mechanical action is required, HOWEVER the last thing you want to do is weaken the skin and break it down with too vigorous a scrubbing. That will just facilitate penetration of the oil into the skin, and make you more vulnerable until your skin has repaired. I get exposure to poison ivy on a regular basis but I know there's a 2h grace period in which I do all the yardwork around that stuff then jump in the shower. A normal shower takes care of it all.
- DoofusOfDeath 10y agoI wrote this in another branch, but I should repeat it here: I've had total success by cleaning with naphtha soap after contact with poison ivy.
- SaturateDK 10y agoYou should visit this place: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tboW11dMeKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tboW11dMeKs :-D
- tom_mellior 10y ago> Now that I know this tree exists, I have little doubt I'd die after a hike in the Caribbean. It's really not that big a deal. On most islands they are clearly marked with a red band. Don't touch them, don't eat strange fruit off the ground, and don't stand under them in the rain and you'll be fine. Even if not marked, just don't go groping trees. Don't worry about breathing the air, that part is sensationalist bullshit. What's more dangerous, as tour guides will be happy to tell you, are coconut palms: Falling coconuts are responsible for more deaths per year than shark attacks. (Although that says more about the rarity of shark attacks, I guess...) Oh well, atlasobscura seems to need the clicks.
- popmatrix 10y agoCorrect. The Galapagos have many of these trees and all are marked on paths. The article did not mention it, but the poison severity of the tree varies quite a bit with season. Once the fruit has all fallen, the milky irritant on the tree has dried or washed off. You should still avoid staying under them in the rain as mentioned above.
- inimino 10y ago> atlasobscura seems to need the clicks. And then there is this: "After all, it is rumored to have killed the famed explorer, Juan Ponce de Leon." By which they actually mean, a few paragraphs later, that the arrows that killed him "may have been" tipped with it. (If it had just been the arrows and not the irritating sap, surely he'd still be with us today.) I've seen a few atlasobscura links on HN, usually I already know what the topic will be from the headline. Something feels a bit off about the site, almost like they exist for no purpose but to generate traffic.
- nathanm412 10y agoAfter having a bad run-in with poison ivy as a kid, I can't unsee the plant wherever I go. It's practically neon in my mind. It's amazing how the brain works.
- devb 10y agoSame here. Now I only get it in the winter when the leaves are down.
- DoofusOfDeath 10y agoPerhaps off-topic, but I stopped having problems with poison ivy once I started cleaning my skin with naptha soap after any suspected contact.
- eric_h 10y agoI'm fairly certain any soap will do as long as you wash off the affected area within a couple of hours of exposure
- jandrese 10y agoAs a kid I was always annoyed that nobody could give me a concrete description of poison ivy. The leaves are shiny! There are three! Beyond that everything got really vague. Imagine my surprise a few years ago when I googled and discovered that Poison Ivy isn't a plant, it is a whole family of plants with quite a bit if variation in the family. One thing to watch out for is root runners on the sides of trees. Some varieties climb trees for more light and the only part you see is the fuzzy brown roots--which are just as irritating as the leaves if you touch them.
- DonaldFisk 10y agoAnd this is a walnut tree: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_regia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juglans_regia Compare the fruit, leaves, and bark.
- Alex3917 10y agoOne has simple leaves, the other has compound leaves. And do the ranges even have much overlap?
- DonaldFisk 10y agoThere are differences if you know what to look for. I've often collected walnuts from trees in England and thought they looked similar. I don't need to check if the leaves are pinnate - they always are. If I hadn't been forewarned, I might have got as far as cutting the manchineel fruit open before discarding it, thinking it was a related species. Lack of range overlap makes misidentification by someone from outside the range more likely.
- mfukar 10y agoEven if one couldn't tell the leaves apart, the bark of the trees is completely different. One is smooth, the other reddish. And of course there's no way you would mistake the brown-green husk of the walnut for manchineel fruit - they are smaller in size, the husk is often cracked near maturity. Not that we don't have issues with walnuts, either..
- DonaldFisk 10y agoIt would help to link to some photographs, and make pronoun references unambiguous. I've never seen a manchineel tree. Perhaps they do look quite different in real life. But based on the photographs I've seen (e.g. on http://psytreasure.com/little-apple-death-deadly-plant-used-torture-instrument/ http://psytreasure.com/little-apple-death-deadly-plant-used-...) there's a risk of confusing the two plants. From what I can tell based on photographs (here walnut = Juglans regia): Leaves: Individual leaves are very similar but walnut leaves have a pinnate arrangement, manchineel don't. Fruit: If they're shaped like apples, or are yellowish, they're manchineel. However, manchineel are often more oval and coloured similarly to walnut (see photo on psytreasure page). Bark: There's enough overlap here that I wouldn't rely on it. Location: Manchineel trees are usually located on the coast or near water. Walnut trees can be found anywhere. Range: Manchineel trees are located around the Caribbean Walnut is Eurasian, but has North American relatives (e.g. black walnut). Advice: If you're near the Caribbean and see what looks like a walnut tree, avoid it. More general advice: If you're not sure what a plant is, don't eat it.
- mdturnerphys 10y agoThe quoted article by the radiologist was discussed recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12257523 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12257523
- ardme 10y agoI thought the mention of water hemlock near the end was interesting. Actually, common poison hemlock (which is related) grows all over the U.S. midwest like a weed and it is very deadly. You will see it growing in fields and at the side of many highways if you drive through Ohio. It is commonly mistaken for wild carrots (aka queen anne's lace). It famously was used to poison Socrates, and it kills a lot of livestock accidentally in modern times. https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonous-plant-research/docs/poison-hemlock-conium-maculatum/ https://www.ars.usda.gov/pacific-west-area/logan-ut/poisonou...
- vinhboy 10y agoThis plant is all over California. I am actually surprised I have never heard of any fatalities.
- njharman 10y agoIn my experience, modern Americans rarely go around eating weeds from the wilderness / side of highway. Lack of fatalities is not surprising.
- justinator 10y agojoin us, https://fallingfruit.org/ https://fallingfruit.org/
- enthdegree 10y agoUp next on Brave Wilderness...
- ChuckMcM 10y agohttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127797/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127797/ is a recent report of tourists eating manchineel fruit.
- metaphor 10y agoIt was linked to and directly quoted from in the article.
- franciscop 10y agoI read somewhere that, if you get stranded somewhere and your last option is to eat some natural plants/fruits that you don't know, the rule was to take a small bite and wait for few hours. Most poisonous things would not kill you this way but will give you a hard time so you know it's not safe. Otherwise it's safe-ish to eat
- Retra 10y agoI remember a more incremental approach: 1. Mash it and hold in the pit of your elbow for an hour. If no irritation, go to step 2. 2. Hold it in your mouth for an hour. If no irritation, go to step 3. 3. Eat a bite and wait a few hours. If no irritation, go to step 4. 4. Eat a small amount and wait a few hours. If no irritation, it's probably safe to eat.
- athenot 10y agoIt might be good to wait a few hours to a day between each step. Urushiol (Poison Ivy et al.) usually takes about 4-6 hours to start showing symptoms.
- TheGrumpyBrit 10y ago"This man died of starvation" "But how is that possible? He's surrounded by fruit!"
- coldtea 10y agoAnd apples at that!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- pmoriarty 10y agoThe rule of thumb is that you can survive: 3 minutes without air 3 days without water 3 weeks without food So you're probably not going to die without food if you go even for some days without it. In fact, many people regularly fast for days on end, some (such as people on hunger strikes) have fasted for weeks. Of course, all of the above rules of thumb are subject to modifications based on things such as the amount of physical exertion you're under, your health, the weather, etc. If you're doing lots of exercise in the heat, you're going to need a lot more water than if you're lying still in the shade.
- abecedarius 10y agoI wonder if the fruit was eaten by an extinct (or locally extinct) animal. Any plausible candidates?
- njharman 10y agoIguanas. Also RTFA.
- abecedarius 10y agoI did RTFA; it said iguanas are not native to the area. If they used to be, that'd be a good answer.
- dang 10y agoWe ban accounts that post uncivilly, so please don't do this. We'd appreciate it if you'd (re)-read the following, which give an idea of the kind of discussion we're hoping for here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html
- franze 10y agoOoohhhkeeey, "manzanilla de la muerte" slept under one during a hot afternoon in a nature reserve in ecuador. Great shadow at that point, had some red dots on my arm and back later... And yes, there were huge signs not to touch the tree and eat the fruites, but it was the only shadow around.
- hackskull 10y agoIronically, ‘Manchi neellu’ in Telugu language means, ‘fresh water’
- hackskull 10y agoIronically, ‘Manchi neellu’ in Telugu language means, ‘fresh water
- logicallee 10y agoIMO this title would be better if it were broken not to be so parallel: "Do Not Eat, or Touch, or Even Inhale the Air Around the Manchineel Tree"
- antirez 10y agoIf you live in central/north Europe, beware of Heracleum Mantegazzianum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_mantegazzianum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_mantegazzianum
- lost_my_pwd 10y agoWe have to watch out for that in the US too, as well as wild parsnip.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- eveningcoffee 10y agoI have heard that this plant is very difficult and dangerous to destroy.
- funkyy 10y agoAnd this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_sosnowskyi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracleum_sosnowskyi
- sparkzilla 10y agoFor more information on the mighty Hogweed please consult this handy PSA featuring Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCDf9kWXDY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYCDf9kWXDY
- krylon 10y agoWhen I was young, these grew in our neighborhood. I remember my parents giving me very stern warnings not to touch that plant. I found it strange that such a nasty plant was allowed to grow in a neighborhood with little kids around, but then again there's lots of nasty plants in German gardens. After I made the mistake to touch a stinging nettle, I took such warnings more seriously.
- FreeFull 10y ago
- ultim8k 10y agoChemical data is missing though.
- minxomat 10y agoSomeone with minor poisoning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364GFrNa3wA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364GFrNa3wA > Yeah I was thrashing around in pain, until I cracked a joke and felt emotionally better. That's why I picked up my camera and decided to chronicle my adventure. The thing about unbelievable pain is that sometimes it's so unbelievable that you can't believe it and there is some humor in that. For people like me anyway. Takes it pretty well, but it sure does look painful.
- leoc 10y agoSo apparently the wood from its similarly-toxic relative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metopium_brownei https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metopium_brownei, "black poisonwood", is in use in things like musical instruments? http://www.bonedrymusic.com/Chechem-Rhythm-Bones-s/283.htm http://www.bonedrymusic.com/Chechem-Rhythm-Bones-s/283.htm
- SeanDav 10y ago> "The toxicity to humans, though, that’s a mystery. “There really isn’t an evolutionary answer to its being toxic, other than to just say it’s a biological mistake because it certainly doesn’t gain anything by being toxic to humans" I am quite puzzled by this quote, in evolutionary terms, humans are very recent. I highly doubt that humans have been around for long enough for plants to evolve to suite humans specifically, rather than mammals in general.
- jfoutz 10y agoCorn has.
- afarrell 10y agoAlso, mistake implies that there is some agency and or design intent involved.
- pvaldes 10y agoHumans mean probably "a member of primates" in this context. A lot of fruit plants coevolved with primates but following the other direction. We are big diseminators of seeds and an interesting target to atract and spoil. Fruits designed for dinosaurs-birds and fruits designed for mammals are often very different in its chemical composition.
- coldshower 10y agoReminds me of the Devil Tree (Triplaris americana) found in South America[1]. Anything that touches its bark (bird, insect, human) is ferociously attacked by colonies of venom squirting red ants. Learned about this fascinating tree in the equally fascinating book "1491" by Charles Mann[2]. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplaris_americana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triplaris_americana [2]http://amzn.to/2hKn6Ly http://amzn.to/2hKn6Ly
- uep 10y agoYour comment makes me think that the Latin speaking world likes to attribute bad plants to the devil. There's a drug that Colombians call the Devil's Breath[1]. Which is believed to be scopolamine[2], which had previously been used as truth-serum. The rumors go that the drug makes you "zombified" and compliant, willing to do whatever is suggested to you. It's my understanding that the drug is extracted from belladonna[3] though it's hard to know what is actually true about the rumors. Vice has a video about it[4], though I haven't had the opportunity to watch it yet. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2015/sep/02/devils-breath-aka-scopolamine-can-it-really-zombify-you https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2015/sep/02/de... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyoscine [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna [4] https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/worlds-scariest-drug-colombian-devil39s-breath-part-1/55ef5be749b3d5591cf227c4 https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/worlds-scariest-drug-colo...
- giardini 10y agoHere's the passage in the book where the "Devil's Tree" is encountered: https://books.google.com/books?id=KPKMDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA7&ots=r2Zv6NH7vY&focus=viewport&dq=Devil+Tree+(Triplaris+americana) https://books.google.com/books?id=KPKMDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA7&lpg=PA...
- kahrkunne 10y agoI'll make sure not to eat the air around this tree
- Symmetry 10y agoCould the poison fruit be to prevent fish from eating them while they float through the ocean?
- agentgt 10y agoI wonder if the plant exhibits (or will eventually) the Edge Effect [1]. Poisonous plants such as poison ivy often do because people will avoid the plants but will tromp on others (thus the poison plants survive readily on the edge since there is less competition). That being said if the plant is exceedingly a nuisance like mosquitos it might prefer not to live on the edge (as humans will actively destroy it). [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_effects