Even the nectar and petals of its beautiful white or lavender trumpet-shaped flowers are dangerous. The green spheres, measuring about 2 inches (5 centimeters) across, are covered with long, sharp spines. The plant's fruit is particularly wicked-looking. Its toothed foliage emits an unpleasant odor and branches from reddish-purple stalks, which grow to a height of 3 to 4 feet (0.9 to 1.2 meters). With pointy leaves and spiky fruit, jimsonweed ( Datura stramonium) definitely looks the part of a poisonous plant. Arterra/Universal Images Group/Getty Images The thorny seed capsule of the jimsonweed ( Datura stramonium) practically shouts a warning to stay away. These harmful effects result from the toxin hippomane A and B, which are present in every part of the tree. Ingestion of the deceptively sweet, crabapple-like fruits is known to blister the mouth and cause the throat to swell shut, then inflict severe gastrointestinal problems.
#Humans consuming magic flowers skin
Its milky sap can squirt from the tree when twigs are snapped off, painfully irritating the skin and eyes.
Your car isn't even safe from this toxic tree: Park under its low branches, and dripping sap can seriously damage the paint.ĭirect contact with the manchineel tree is far more hazardous.
Some reports suggest that simply standing beneath the tree during a rainstorm and being splashed by runoff may result in rashes and itching. Inhaling sawdust or smoke from the 30-foot (9-meter) tall tree may result in a variety of uncomfortable side effects, including coughing, laryngitis and bronchitis. Would you believe that there's a tree so poisonous that you don't actually have to touch it to be harmed? It's called the manchineel tree ( Hippomane mancinella), found throughout the Florida Everglades, Central America and the Caribbean. Ingestion of the deceptively sweet, crabapple-like fruits of the Manchineel tree is known to blister the mouth and cause the throat to swell shut. In fact, the following 10 could actually kill you. While you certainly won't fall prey to the pitchers of the Nepenthes - they're entirely too small to hold a human - you could easily fall prey to the sickness some plants induce. When they come to drink, they fall into the pitcher, are unable to escape, and the plant draws nutrients from the captured prey.
Insects and, on occasion, small animals are attracted to the scented water. This substance mixes with water that the plant draws up through its roots. The pitcher plant creates a substance that coats the inside of its pitchers. The largest of the pitcher plants is known as Nepenthes, and this plant does capture small vermin and lizards in its pitchers (or cupped leaves). The man-eating tree of Madagascar may have been an exaggeration of the pitcher plants that grow in Madagascar, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia and other hot and humid, low-lying areas. While a tentacle-wielding, man-consuming tree may not exist, a scaled-down version of such a plant does.