Page 5 - My FlipBook

ATTACKER: Dendrocnide moroides
Dogs, horses, and even people have died after
a brush with the stinging tree. A soldier reportedly ALIASES: stinging tree, stinging bush,
shot himself after using a stinging tree leaf as toilet gympie, gympie stinger, suicide plant
paper. Another soldier who fell into the plant during
ATTACK STRATEGY: stings animals and
military training in 1941 had to be tied down to a
people with poison-filled hairs
hospital bed for three weeks because the pain was so
bad. The pain can take years to go away completely. KNOWN WHEREABOUTS: sunny clearings
Such a tiny mistake. Such a horrible punishment. in the rain forest of northeastern Australia

THE MYSTERY OF THE
GYMPIE’S STING

In the wild, every plant is at risk of being eaten.
Plants can’t run away, so they must defend
themselves. To do so, they may wield sharp
thorns, ooze a sticky gum, or fill their leaves with
bitter poisons.
But the stinging tree takes self-defense to a
horrifying level. Even though it is called a tree, it’s
really a big shrub that grows in clearings in the
Australian rain forest. How painful is its sting?
Just ask Marina Hurley.
“Being stung is the worst kind of pain you
can imagine—like being burnt with hot acid and
electrocuted at the same time,” said Hurley, an
ecologist who has studied what eats the tree.
Stinging hairs cover every inch of the plant
from the ground up—stems, fruits, and leaves.
The sharp hairs are made of silica—the same
substance found in glass—and are filled with
poison. They break off with the slightest touch and
jab into the skin like poison-filled needles. If the
skin closes over the tiny hairs, the pain can come
back years later. A hot shower, a cold shower, or a The fuzzy leaves of the stinging tree are covered
with poisonous hairs. One touch can mean months
touch of the stung area—and the pain returns.
of pain.

7