Most painful plant arrives at botanical garden


This video says about itself:

Most Painful Plant

31 January 2015

The gympie gympie plant has an excruciatingly painful sting. It’s one of the most venomous plants in the world.

Its sting is infamously agonizing. An officer once killed himself in order to escape the pain. It’s from the gympie gympie plant, and here’s what you need to know to survive.

What is it?

The gympie gympie plant, or Dendrocnide moroides, is one of the world’s most venomous plants with large, heart-shaped leaves. It’s known as a stinging because because of its stinging hairs that deliver a potent neurotoxin when its leaf is touched. The pain from a sting has been described as unbearable, driving its victims to the point of madness. Stories have been told of horses jumping off cliffs after being stung just to escape the pain. It was extensive[ly] studied for years by Dr. Marina Hurley.

Where is it located?

Gympie gympies are native to the rainforest areas of northeastern Australia, the Maluku Islands (Moluccas), and Indonesia. They’re large shrubs with bright pink fruits whose seeds germinate and flower in full sunlight after soil disturbances.

How will it kill you?

The entire gympie gympie plant is covered in fine, silicon-like hairs that embed themselves in your body after which they release a painful toxin. Breathing them in can cause severe sneezing fits and nosebleeds. Stings start out as a painful burning sensations that grow more and more intense over the next half hour. It can then lead to aching joints and swelling under your armpits as well as vomiting due to the intensity of the pain. The pain can last from a few days up to several months. Also, it can become so severe that it can eventually lead to shock followed by death.

How to survive:

Gympie gympie stings are felt immediately and its hairs must be removed right away in order for the pain to subside. The recommended treatment is to apply diluted hydrochloric acid onto the affected skin areas then pulling the hairs out with a wax hair removal strip. If you don’t remove all the gympie gympie hairs, they can keep releasing their toxin into your skin for up to a year.

The Leiden botanical garden reports that this week, a gympie gympie plant has been added to their collection; not to the part of the collection open to the public, because of the danger of the sting.

The gympie gympie plant is related to stinging nettles; however, its sting is about a hundred times worse.

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