Bad Apple

A tip of the hat to Jeanie Glass for the link to this recent article by Dan Nosowitz about the deadly manchineel tree, Hippomane mancinella.

The manchineel grows in Florida, and according to IFAS it's usually a tall shrub found along seacoasts and in brackish swamps where it grows among mangroves. As you can see in this photo by Hans Hillewaert at the Wikimedia Commons, the fruit of the manchineel looks something like a small green apple, giving rise to its totally inappropriate common name of beach apple.

The fruit actually has a sweet, pleasant taste, but it and the entire tree are violently poisonous:

---The sap can cause burn-like blisters on the skin.

---Smoke from the burning wood can injure the eyes.

---Radiologist Nikola Strickland gave this description of taking one bite of the fruit:

[Moments later,] we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump. Sadly, the pain was exacerbated by most alcoholic beverages, although mildly appeased by piña coladas, but more so by milk alone.

Over the next eight hours our oral symptoms slowly began to subside, but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and easily palpable. Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit's poisonous reputation.

Not surprisingly, native people used the sap to tip poisoned arrows, and legend has it that one of these ended the life of Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León.

The manchineel is apparently toxic to all mammals, but healthy fare for iguanas. And the wood, aged until the sap has lost its potency, is used in cabinetry.

As mentioned Nosowitz's article, the manchineel is a relative of the familiar (and also poisonous) poinsettia plant. While the manchineel can claim to be the most deadly tree, there are even more dangerous plants even here in Florida. A quarter inch of the stem of the spotted water hemlock Cicuta maculata can be fatal.

It deepens my appreciation of the ability of wild creatures to figure out what to eat, without the help of tribal knowledge or smartphones.