Page 7 - My FlipBook

forest floor,” she said. She had to spend the
rest of the day in the hospital.
So this tree must have the best defense
ever against being eaten, right? Actually, no!
Hurley said the plant is crawling with
spiders, beetles, ants, snails, frogs, and
lizards. Shiny blackish-green beetles munch
the leaves, avoiding the hairs. Rain forest
birds gobble the bright pink fruits whole. A
rain forest kangaroo—called the red-legged
pademelon (PAH-dee-meh-lon)—can strip
all the leaves off the plant in a single night.
Hurley said that many rain forest
animals are either immune to the poison or
can tolerate an awful lot of pain. “Obviously
[the poison is] not working for a lot of
animals.” To study what eats the stinging tree, Marina Hurley had to
venture into the rain forest at night—and dress as if going
So what is the point of the stinging into battle.
tree’s sting? One expert says that the
stinging tree’s poison may have been
for Diprotodonts, enormous wombatlike creatures that are now extinct. These 3-ton (2.7 t)
herbivores used to rumble through the rain forests of Australia, scarfing down as much as 330
pounds (150 kg) of vegetation a day. The giants disappeared about twenty-five thousand years
ago. Maybe the poison is a weapon against an enemy that no longer exists.
As for Hurley, she had to stop her research after she developed a serious allergy to the tree.
You win this round, stinging tree.

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