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Most Dangerous Trees You Should Never Touch · Be Amazed

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: the peace and quiet of the forest.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Huh, what a perfect place to relax.
• 0:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Except not all of these trees are safe for humans to touch.
• 0:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Believe it or not, some trees are so hazardous that even standing too close can be a dead sentence.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: There are trees that produce deadly poisons, trees with trunks lined with thorns, and trees who seeds explode with the force of a hand grenade.
• 0:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Suddenly the force doesn't seem so relaxing.
• 0:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: So let me be your guide.
• 0:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: As we explore some of the world's most dangerous trees and plants that you should never ever touch.
• 0:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're ever lucky enough to find yourself relaxing on the beaches of the Caribbean, you might think the trees lining the coast could provide some well-earned shade.
• 0:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: But if you notice that the trees are marked with a series of red bands, you need to pick up your towel and your water wings and run away from there as fast as you can.
• 1:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's because this is the Montreal tree, one of the most toxic trees in the entire world.
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: The Milky White sap, the tree excretes his packed full of skin irritants which are strong enough to cause blisters on contact and even second degree burns.
• 1:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: The irritants in this sap are so dangerous that if even a drop were to land in your eye, it could cause blindness, and that's just the beginning.
• 1:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: The sap can dilute into rainwater making it dangerous to even stand underneath as the solution drips off wet leaves.
• 1:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: And if this tainted rainwater evaporates and you breathe it in, it's still strong enough to irritate and burn your lungs.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The effects of this sap are so lethal, locals have taken to marking any manchennial trunks with red bands, and even adding warning signs to clearly show people need to stay well away.
• 2:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not the only thing that makes the manchennial horrifyingly dangerous.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: It also produces a small green fruit, which is known locally as the Beach Apple.
• 2:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: A misleadingly sweet name for a potentially fatal fruit.
• 2:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Take it from Nicola, a British tourist who took a bite out of the green tangerine-sized fruit that looks just like a small apple while on holiday.
• 2:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though at first it was pleasantly sweet, moments later she was gripped by a burning pain in her throat.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: It was so intense it left her completely unable to swallow and the excruciating tearing pain in her throat lasted for several hours.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: The only relief she could find was through chucking down gallons of cold Pina Coladas.
• 2:52
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's certainly one way to make it a memorable vacation, but Nicola was lucky.
• 2:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Others who have accidentally ingested the fruit have suffered from inflamed and blistered mouths, as well as severe digestive problems.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you see a strange fruit on a Caribbean beach that doesn't have a cocktail umbrella poking out of it, avoid it at all costs.
• 3:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you walked by this next tree, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's big bulbous fruits were some sort of oranges, but if you peeled one apart, you'd learn very quickly that these ain't your average oranges.
• 3:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you went even further and decided to chow down on this fruit, well, there's a chance you wouldn't live to tell others about it.
• 3:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's because this is the Striknos Nox Vamaka, more commonly known as the Striknein Tree.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Strict nine is a potent poison which is found throughout the entire tree though most notably in the seeds.
• 3:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: If ingested in large amounts, Strict nine can cause involuntary skeletal muscle contractions which you have no control over.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The muscles can convulse, tightening and flexing uncontrollably to the point where a person's head, neck and spinal column sees into a bridging arch position.
• 4:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's one seriously extreme yoga pose.
• 4:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Though not a pose you should be practicing because the continual strain of this position ultimately results in a sphicciation.
• 4:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I thought downward dog was hard.
• 4:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tree itself is native to India and Southeast Asia, and amazingly it's credited as limiting the spread of the bubonic plague to these regions.
• 4:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's because it's fruits decimated the European rat populations that carried the deadly virus to these lands.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Today, the Strict Nine Tree is still predominantly used as a source of rat poison.
• 4:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: So if you ask me, it's best to leave this one to the rats.
• 4:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: With any luck, the only time you'll encounter any of these terrifying trees will be in this episode.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of which, if you've learned something new so far, be sure to follow my podcast and leave a five-star rating.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: All done?
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Great.
• 5:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now what have we got next?
• 5:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: Australia is the country where just about everything can kill you.
• 5:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you're brave enough to go for a walk about in the woods and are really careful, you may think you're safe from anything dangerous like snakes or spiders.
• 5:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: But be sure to look up because even the trees are dangerous down under.
• 5:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: Typically, growing to heights of more than one hundred feet with rigid and sharp leaves, boniopines are ancient trees, which have stuck around since the Jurassic era, some one hundred ninety nine million years ago.
• 5:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: Protective gear must be worn when handling the leaves or branches, but the leaves are the least of your problems.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: between the months of December and March, these trees shed massive pine cones weighing up to forty pounds each.
• 5:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's a seed, the weight of an average five-year-old, which can fall from the height of a nine-story building.
• 5:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't want to be stood underneath that tree when it happened, like Sean Mace was.
• 6:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: Back in two thousand fifteen, Sean was resting under a boon-yapine when, out of nowhere, a sixteen-pound pine cone fell right on his head.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: That might sound sort of funny, but Sean required two major surgeries and the impact left him with likely irreversible brain damage.
• 6:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Not exactly a laughing matter.
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: As frightening as that is, Bunyapan cones aren't entirely terrible.
• 6:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: The seeds within are edible and make up a stable part of the diet of many indigenous Australians.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Many trees still bore the carved hand and foot holds used by the aboriginal peoples to harvest the boonia pine cones, as they weren't foolish enough to wait for them to drop on their heads.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you ever decide to visit Australia, be sure to pack all the essentials, swimming shorts, sunblock, and a hard hat.
• 6:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Just from looking at the terrifying tree in the cover image of this episode, I probably don't have to tell you to keep your hands off it, unless you're looking to add a few huge new holes to your palms.
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: This is the sandbox tree, a natural nightmare native to the tropical regions of the US and South America.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: Growing up to one hundred feet tall, the sandbox tree also goes by the nickname of the monkey no climb tree.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: That's pretty obviously because its bark is covered in sharp dagger-like spikes that can grow to more than an inch long.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I wouldn't want to climb it either.
• 7:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: To make it even worse, the trees secretes a sap that is a potent irritant, strong enough to blind anyone unlucky enough to get it in their eyes.
• 7:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: Wow, this tree is not playing around.
• 7:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: But why is it so nightmarish?
• 7:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's all to protect its precious fruit, which look like tiny, adorable pumpkins.
• 7:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, once the soft flesh withers away, it leaves behind hardened dried seed capsules that are the botanical equivalent of hand grenades.
• 7:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: When fully mature, the seeds drop to the ground and explode, flinging their hard flattened seed capsules at speeds of up to one hundred fifty miles per hour.
• 8:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: This disperses the seed capsules far away from the parent tree to provide them with ample resources to germinate and grow.
• 8:19
  [SPEAKER_00]: Although it has been reported that the seed explosion sound as loud as a gunshot, and with its CD shrapnel firing that fast, I'd make sure not to be in that line of fire if I were you.
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now it's not just trees that make up our world's frightening floor.
• 8:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: Back in Australia, a deceptively, dainty, dark green plant with heart-shaped leaves and a fuzzy white fur looks like it would make the perfect addition to a Valentine's bouquet.
• 8:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's much more likely to leave you forever alone.
• 8:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: Meet the JMP plant, also commonly known as the stinging tree.
• 8:56
  [SPEAKER_00]: Its delicate white hairs are, in fact, needles laced with maroid in.
• 9:00
  [SPEAKER_00]: A powerful neurotoxin that causes excruciating pain.
• 9:04
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the worst part is that it doesn't degrade over time, leaving victims suffering for days, months, or even years if the JMP needles are not removed from the skin.
• 9:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The burning pain is so bad, local legends have described horses stung by this plant as being driven mad and running off cliffs to end their pain.
• 9:25
  [SPEAKER_00]: Antomologist and ecologist Marina Hurley, while conducting a study of the plant described the sting as the worst kind of pain you can imagine, like being burnt with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Others have described the sting as equivalent to thirty wasps stings, a picnic from hell.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: Even standing near the JMP is a hazard because the fine needles can break off in the breeze, and if you breathe them in, they'll wreak havoc on your respiratory system.
• 9:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, I'm amending that Australian Essentials list from before, swimming shorts, sunblock, hard hat, and a gas mask.
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next up, while the Caribbean's Mancheneel Tree holds the official title of the most dangerous tree in the world.
• 10:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: It isn't the Caribbean's only unsafe shrub.
• 10:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Called the Pesonia tree that thick canopies of these trees encourage birds to nest inside their branches.
• 10:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, like many plants, the Pesonia relies on animals to carry its seeds far away from the parent plant so that they don't end up directly competing for resources.
• 10:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: As such, the Pasonia releases sticky gooey seeds that adhere themselves to the bird's feathers.
• 10:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Pretty smart, but somewhere in the Pasonia's plan, something went really, really wrong.
• 10:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: The pods are so sticky that the birds become completely incapacitated, with some lugging around more than two hundred seeds.
• 10:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: left flight lists unable to move or even free themselves, the poor birds eventually succumb to starvation, fatigue, or become prey to opportunistic predators.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: The most worrying part though is that botanists have no idea why the tree does this.
• 11:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: Scientists conducted several studies and concluded that the tree obtains absolutely no benefit from its bounty of dead birds.
• 11:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps it is a mechanism the tree evolved to combat predators that have now gone extinct, or it's an evolutionary genetic quirk that has just gone too far.
• 11:34
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's either that, or this tree just really, really hates birds.
• 11:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now, there's an old urban legend that coconuts kill more than one hundred fifty people per year by falling out of trees at a great height and cracking them on the head.
• 11:50
  [SPEAKER_00]: Fortunately though, this is totally false.
• 11:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a fabricated statistic popularized by shark activists to demonstrate the relatively low number of shark attack related fatalities with ten casualties on average caused by sharks each year.
• 12:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: If a coconut weighing four pounds fell eighty feet onto a person's head, the impact velocity would be fifty miles per hour.
• 12:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: The force of that would be roughly equivalent to the weight of one ton.
• 12:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: That means a coconut falling at terminal velocity would be the equivalent of dropping about three hundred bricks on your head.
• 12:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: And coconuts dropped from lower heights have resulted in EAR trauma admissions with injuries caused to the back shoulders and head.
• 12:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: There have even been fatalities caused by coconut.
• 12:41
  [SPEAKER_00]: In nineteen seventy three a young child in Hawaii was fatally injured while playing in a park after a coconut in a nearby tree fell on them.
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: and in two thousand and two of fatal incident involving a falling coconut on a beach in northern Queensland, Australia lead to authorities removing coconut trees from all their beaches.
• 13:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: So be careful where you decide to take a nap on holiday or this falling fruit might be the last thing you ever see.
• 13:09
  [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, I'm about to tell you something that's so gross I could hardly research it myself without feeling sick.
• 13:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: Still here?
• 13:18
  [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you have been warned.
• 13:21
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now let me introduce you to a frightening thing that could suddenly slide out of any tree you might find near sea water.
• 13:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: Let me tell you about shipworms.
• 13:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Despite their name,
• 13:32
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're technically a member of the Molysk family, a group of saltwater clams with long, soft, white bodies.
• 13:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are infamous for burrowing into structures such as pears, docks and ships, anywhere where wood meets the sea, shipworms will be there.
• 13:48
  [SPEAKER_00]: They set along to wooden structures as larvae, where they begin to excavate the wood, burrowing themselves inside as they grow into adulthood,
• 13:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: spending their whole lives munching great long tracks through the wooden beams.
• 14:03
  [SPEAKER_00]: The tunneling of shipworms can cause dangerous structural weaknesses and result in shipwrecks and peer collapses alongside a nasty shower of slimy worm.
• 14:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's gross.
• 14:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Nevertheless, in the Philippines, shipworms are known locally as Tamilog, and are considered a delicious delicacy.
• 14:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: They are their hunted and extracted from the trees growing or rotting in mangroves close to the coast, but depending on how infested the tree is, its structural integrity could see it collapse at any moment, putting potential hunters in grave danger.
• 14:39
  [SPEAKER_00]: I think I'll be safe though, seeing how I just lost my appetite forever.
• 14:44
  [SPEAKER_00]: At a glance, the pretty flowers dangling from this next tree really steal the show.
• 14:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: The pristine petals have earned the name Angel's Trumpets, but after you learn a little more about them, you realize they should be called Devil's Trumpets.
• 14:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The official name of this plant is Bug Mancia, and originally it was native to the wilds of South America, though it can now be found a lot closer to home.
• 15:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps even in your garden.
• 15:10
  [SPEAKER_00]: Brugmansia is considered by many as an ornamental plant perfect to have an apod on the patio.
• 15:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: but don't be fooled, it's also one of the most toxic trees you can grow.
• 15:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: To both humans and animals, the toxins of this plant can be fatal.
• 15:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: In their native climates, Bergmanja can grow upwards of twenty feet tall, the entire tree covered in foot-long trumpet-shaped flowers.
• 15:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, be warned, because contact with this plant can trigger anticholinergic syndrome in the central nervous system, leaving sufferers completely paralyzed and confused.
• 15:46
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's so dangerous that ecologists routinely have to wear hazmat suits while working with it, but that's not all.
• 15:54
  [SPEAKER_00]: The toxin can also trigger auditory and visual hallucinations.
• 15:59
  [SPEAKER_00]: According to studies, the hallucinations aren't fun, they're terrifying, meaning this is a tree that can probably make your worst nightmares appear before your very eyes.
• 16:08
  [SPEAKER_00]: Back in two thousand six, a young man was admitted to hospital after drinking a cup of red angel's trumpet tea.
• 16:15
  [SPEAKER_00]: He seemed to be searching for a high, but instead, in the throes of a vivid hallucination, he cut off his tongue and his own trumpet.
• 16:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Now that's what you call a bad trip.
• 16:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: If you ever go on a walk through an orchard in Brazil, you may come across a tree smothered in black boils.
• 16:35
  [SPEAKER_00]: But before you hailed down the locals to warn them of an oncoming plague, you should know that they're actually berries.
• 16:43
  [SPEAKER_00]: Delicious and edible berries of the Jabata Kaba Tree to be precise.
• 16:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: native to three states of Brazil and in season for just a few weeks of the year, these berries grow in a bizarre fashion.
• 16:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: They smother the tree trunk like a clutch of alien eggs, rather than in the usual way of appearing among the leaves.
• 17:05
  [SPEAKER_00]: Due to the extremely short shelf life of these berries beginning to ferment three to four days after being picked, they are often turned into jam, jelly, juice, or liquor.
• 17:17
  [SPEAKER_00]: However, when it comes to figuring out which blackberries are safe to eat, you'd best leave that to the Brazilians.
• 17:24
  [SPEAKER_00]: Without an untrained eye, many other luscious-looking blackberries are, in fact, poisonous.
• 17:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Hope weed, a common sight in South America, bears inviting blackberries on bright purple stems.
• 17:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But unlike the delicious Jabata Cababerries, these cause violent, cramping, difficulty breathing, and eventualest fixiation.
• 17:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: But it's far from the only dangerous blackberry out there.
• 17:49
  [SPEAKER_00]: Atrepa, Belladana, otherwise known as Deadly Nightshade is one of the most toxic plants in the world, and also sports berries that are similar in shape and size to the Jabata Kaba.
• 18:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: But don't be fooled by their similar appearance because eating even a single nightshade berry can cause hallucinations, psychosis, and convulsions.
• 18:11
  [SPEAKER_00]: Eating just two disrupts involuntary systems throughout your body, like sweating, breathing, and your heart rate, which can prove fatal.
• 18:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The best rule to follow is to always avoid wild blackberries, unless you find them growing directly from a tree trunk in Brazil.
• 18:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Next up, the leaves of the honey-locus tree commonly found across the U.S.
• 18:33
  [SPEAKER_00]: turn an incredible shade of orange in the fall.
• 18:36
  [SPEAKER_00]: But be warned because lurking beneath those leaves are sharp spear-like thorns that are about four inches long, although some can reach as long as eleven inches.
• 18:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: Flick knives with blades longer than two-point-five inches are generally illegal to carry in most U.S.
• 18:53
  [SPEAKER_00]: states, so it's fair to say this is a seriously gangster tree.
• 18:58
  [SPEAKER_00]: The flowers possess a strong, sweet scent, but leaning in too close to get a sniff could bring you face to face with those thorns.
• 19:07
  [SPEAKER_00]: They're so big and nasty that they've been known to puncture the tires of field tractors.
• 19:13
  [SPEAKER_00]: and some horrifying accounts have even described these thorns piercing right through people's skin to fracture the bone.
• 19:20
  [SPEAKER_00]: The thorns are thought to have evolved to protect the tree from giant animals that used to roam the earth during the world's last ice age, like woolly mammoths.
• 19:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: Those animals have since gone extinct, but the honey locus tree has hung onto its weaponry.
• 19:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: On the other hand, the honey-locus close cousin, the black-locustry, takes its thorny weaponry a step further.
• 19:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: The black-locustry has fewer and shorter spikes, but it laces them with the poisonous phytotoxin, called Robin, which can cause muscle weakness and kidney failure.
• 19:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you see a tree with thorny spikes be warned and steer clear, as they evolve to fight off woolly mammoths, so they won't find humans much of a challenge.
• 20:06
  [SPEAKER_00]: The savanna's of Equatorial East Africa are great rolling planes punctuated here and thereby vegetation.
• 20:12
  [SPEAKER_00]: It's a relatively peaceful, quiet landscape, with the exception of an odd eerie whistling, one that's not coming from any sort of bird.
• 20:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Meet the whistling thorn, an occasion tree that can grow up to eighteen feet tall.
• 20:29
  [SPEAKER_00]: But that's not all that it grows.
• 20:31
  [SPEAKER_00]: On either side of a swollen vine, the tree boasts tens of pairs of huge spikes, which each reach three inches long.
• 20:38
  [SPEAKER_00]: But the thorns are the least of your concerns as the swollen bases of these thorns are naturally hollow.
• 20:45
  [SPEAKER_00]: This makes them the perfect spot for a whole variety of insects to move in.
• 20:51
  [SPEAKER_00]: ants in particular reside inside the tree in a symbiotic relationship using the hollows of the swollen vines to build their nest and acting as a defense for the tree.
• 21:02
  [SPEAKER_00]: The fire ants protect the tree by swarming out of their nest and attacking any intruders brave enough to try and mess with the tree and attack from a fire ant typically causes instant intense pain.
• 21:14
  [SPEAKER_00]: The pain quickly gives way to itching and intense skin irritation that lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
• 21:22
  [SPEAKER_00]: And worker fire ants are determined soldiers so they won't stop until the job's done.
• 21:28
  [SPEAKER_00]: Ouch!
• 21:30
  [SPEAKER_00]: Every few years, the ant colonies relocate their base to another swollen vine, leaving behind a hollow thorn.
• 21:37
  [SPEAKER_00]: When the wind blows, it whistles through the hollows in the old abandoned thorny vines, leaving the tree to whistle threatenedingly in the wind.
• 21:47
  [SPEAKER_00]: So, if you ever hear an ominous whistling floating over the African savannas, turn on your heel and run the other way.
• 21:55
  [SPEAKER_00]: Who new trees could be so terrifying?
• 21:57
  [SPEAKER_00]: I'll keep a safe distance from all trees from now on, that's for sure.
• 22:01
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening, see you next time.