The manchineel is a tree you don’t wanna mess with.
Do not touch the Manchineel! Image credit: globalreset
The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), also called Poison Guava, is famous for its poisonous fruits and sap. Native mostly to the Florida Everglades and the Caribbean coast, the tree’s attractive, sweet-scented, apple-like fruits have poisoned many Spanish conquistadores, shipwrecked sailors, and present-day tourists.
The manchineel is a handsome, round-crowned tree that grows up to 12 m (40 feet) in height with a 60-centimetre- (2-foot-) thick trunk and lustrous, long-stalked, elliptic yellow-green leaves. The sap released by its trunk is so poisonous and acidic that the merest contact with human skin causes a breakout of blisters, and blindness can occur if it reaches a person’s eyes. It has also been known to damage the paint on cars.
The manchineel tree is known for its poisonous fruits and sap. Image credit: Marianne Serra
“Even standing under it in the rain is enough to cause blistering if the skin is wetted by raindrops containing any sap,” notes The Guinness Book of World Records, which dubbed the manchineel the most dangerous tree in the world in 2011. “In addition, a single bite of its small green apple-like fruit causes blistering and severe pain, and can prove fatal. And if one of these deadly trees is burned, the resulting smoke can cause blindness if it reaches a person’s eyes.”
Caribbean natives used the sap to poison their arrows. Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León died shortly after being struck by an arrow laced with manchineel sap in a battle with the Calusa in Florida. The Conquistadors thereafter referred to the tree as “manzanilla de la muerta,” or “little apple of death.”
The poisonous fruit of the manchineel tree. It contains a hard stone that encloses six to nine seeds. Isabela Island, Galapagos, Ecuador. Image credit: Anne and David
According to Nicola H Strickland, consultant radiologist, who tasted the fruit on a holiday in the Caribbean without knowing what she was eating, the fruit tastes “pleasantly sweet” at first, with a subsequent “strange peppery feeling … gradually progress[ing] to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat.” Symptoms continue to worsen until the patient can “barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump.”
In some parts of its range, many trees carry a warning sign, while others are marked with a red “X” on the trunk to indicate danger. In the French Antilles the trees are usually marked with a painted red band roughly 1 meter (3 ft) above the ground.
Image credit: Daquella manera
Similarly to humans, the plant is toxic to most birds and other animals, but the black-spined iguana (Ctenosaura similis) is known to eat the fruit and even live among the limbs of the tree.
Arawak and Taíno natives used a poultice of arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea) as an antidote against the manchineel’s poison. The Caribs were also known to poison the water supply of their enemies with the leaves.
Manchineel tree in Tobago. Image credit: Aylwin Lo
Despite the inherent dangers associated with handling it, the manchineel tree has been used as a source of wood by Caribbean furniture makers for centuries, as it takes a good polish. To avoid dangerous contact with the poisonous parts, the tree may be burnt at the base to fell it, after which it must be cut and left to dry in the sun so that the sap is dried.
A remarkable tree indeed.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
