Most dangerous trees you should never touch

- [Narrator] The peace and quiet of the forest,
ah, what a perfect place to relax.
Except, not all of these trees are safe for humans to touch.
Believe it or not, some trees are so hazardous
that even standing too close can be a death sentence.
There are trees that produce deadly poisons,
trees with trunks lined with thorns,
and trees whose seeds explode
with the force of a hand grenade.
Suddenly the forest doesn't seem so relaxing.
So, let me be your guide, as I show you
some of the world's most dangerous trees
and plants that you should never, ever touch.
(upbeat music)
The Little Apple Of Death.
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.
But, if you notice that these 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.
That's because this is the Manchineel Tree,
one of the most toxic trees in the entire world.
The milky white sap the tree excretes
is packed full of skin irritants which are strong enough
to cause blisters on contact,
and even 2nd degree burns.
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.
The sap can dilute into rainwater, making it dangerous
to even stand underneath
as the solution drips off wet leaves.
And if this tainted rainwater evaporates and you breathe in,
it's still strong enough to irritate
and burn your lungs.
The effects of this sap are so lethal,
locals have taken to marking any Manchineel trunks
with red bands, and even adding warning signs
to clearly show people need to stay well away.
But that's not the only thing
that makes the Manchineel horrifyingly dangerous.
It also produces a small, green fruit
which is known locally as the "beach apple",
a misleadingly sweet name
for a potentially fatal fruit.
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.
Though at first it was pleasantly sweet,
moments later she was gripped by a burning pain
in her throat.
It was so intense it left her completely unable to swallow,
and the excruciating tearing pain
in her throat lasted for several hours.
The only relief she could find was through chugging down
gallons of cold pina coladas.
That's certainly one way to make it a memorable vacation.
But Nicola was lucky.
Others who have accidentally ingested the fruit
have suffered from inflamed and blistered mouths,
as well as severe digestive problems.
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.
Ominous Oranges.
If you walked by this tree, you'd be forgiven
for thinking that its 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.
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.
That's because this is the Strychnos Nux Vomica,
more commonly known as the Strychnine Tree.
Strychnine is a potent poison,
which is found throughout the entire tree,
though most notably in the seeds.
If ingested in large amounts,
strychnine can cause involuntary
skeletal-muscle contractions,
which you have no control over.
The muscles can convulse,
tightening and flexing uncontrollably
to the point where a person's head,
neck and spinal column seize into a bridging arch position.

Ouch, that's one seriously extreme yoga pose.
Though not a pose you should be practicing,
because the continual strain of this position
ultimately results in asphyxiation.
And I thought downward dog was hard.
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.
That's because its fruits decimated
the European rat populations
that carried the deadly virus to these lands.
Today, the strychnine tree is still predominantly used
as a source of rat poison.
So, if you ask me, it's best to leave this one to the rats.
With any luck, the only time you'll encounter
any of these terrifying trees will be in this video.
Speaking of which, if you've learned something new so far,
be sure to hit those like and subscribe buttons down below.
All done, great, now what have we got next?
Brutal Bunyas.
Ah, Australia, the country where just about everything
can kill you.
If you're brave enough to go for a walkabout in the woods,
and are really careful, you may think you're safe
from anything dangerous like snakes and spiders.
But be sure to look up,
because even the trees are dangerous down under.
Typically growing to heights of more than 100 feet
with rigid and sharp leaves,
Bunya Pines are ancient trees which have stuck around
since the Jurassic era, some 199 million years ago.

Protective gear must be worn when handling the leaves
or branches, but the leaves are the least of your problems.
Between the months of December and March,
these trees shed massive pinecones,
weighing up to 40 pounds each.
That's a seed the weight of an average five-year-old,
which can fall from the height of a nine-story building.
I wouldn't want to be stood underneath that tree
when it happened, like Sean Mace was.
Back in 2015, Sean was resting under a Bunya pine
when, out of nowhere, a 16-pound pinecone
fell right on his head.
That might sound sort of funny,
but Sean required two major surgeries
and the impact left him
with likely irreversible brain damage.
Not exactly a laughing matter.
As frightening as that is,
Bunya pinecones aren't entirely terrible.
The seeds within are edible and make up a stable part
of the diet of many indigenous Australians.
Many trees still bore the carved hand and foot holds
used by the aboriginal peoples
to harvest the Bunya pinecones,
as they weren't foolish enough
to wait for them to drop on their heads.
So, if you ever decide to visit Australia,
be sure to pack all the essentials,
swimming shorts, sun block, and a hard hat.
Spikes and Grenades.
Just from looking at this terrifying tree,
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.
This is the Sandbox tree, a natural nightmare native
of the tropical regions of the US and South America.
Growing up to 100 ft tall, the Sandbox Tree
also goes by the nickname of the monkey no-climb tree.
That's pretty obviously because its bark is covered

in sharp, dagger like spikes
that can grow to more than an inch long.
Yeah, I wouldn't want to climb it either.
To make it even worse, the tree secretes a sap
that is a potent irritant, strong enough to blind anyone
unlucky enough to get it in their eyes.
Wow, this tree is not playing around.
But why is it so nightmarish?
Well, it's all to protect its precious fruit,
which look like tiny, adorable pumpkins.
However, once the soft flesh withers away,
it leaves behind hardened, dried seed capsules
that are the botanical equivalent of hand grenades.
When fully mature, the seeds drop to the ground
and explode, flinging their hard, flattened seed capsules
at speeds of up to 150 mph.
This disperses the seed capsules
far away from the parent tree
to provide them with ample resources to germinate and grow.
Although, it has been reported that the seed explosions
sound as loud as a gunshot.
And with its seedy shrapnel firing that fast,
I'd make sure not to be in that line of fire, if I were you.
Grievous Gympie.
Now, it's not just trees that make up
our world's frightening flora.
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.
But it's much more likely to leave you forever alone.
You see this is the Gympie-Gympie plant,
also commonly known as The Stinging Tree.
Those delicate white hairs are in fact needles
laced with moroidin, a powerful neurotoxin
that causes excruciating pain.
But the worst part is that it doesn't degrade over time,
leaving victims suffering for days, months, or even years
if the Gympie needles are not removed from the skin.
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.
Entomologist 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.
Others have described the sting as equivalent
to 30 wasps' stings, a picnic from hell,
Even standing near the Gympie 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.
All right, I'm amending that Australian essentials list
from before, swimming shorts, sun block,
hard hat and a gas mask.
Have I missed anything?
Let me know down in the comments.
The Cold Killer Tree.
While the Caribbean's Manchineel tree
holds the official title of The Most Dangerous Tree
in the world,
it isn't the Caribbean's only unsafe shrub.
Called the Pisonia Tree, the thick canopies
of these trees encourage birds
to nest inside their branches.
Now, like many plants, the Pisonia relies
on animals to carry its seeds far away
from the parent plants so that they don't end up
directly competing for resources.
As such, the Pisonia releases sticky,
gooey seeds that adhere themselves
to the bird's feathers, pretty smart.
But, somewhere in the Pisonia's plan,
something went really, really wrong.
The pods are so sticky that the birds
become completely incapacitated, with some
lugging around more than 200 seeds.
Left flightless, unable to move,
or even free themselves,
the poor birds eventually succumb to starvation, fatigue,
or become prey to opportunistic predators.
The most worrying part though is that botanists
have no idea why the tree does this.
Scientists conducted several studies
and concluded that the tree obtains absolutely no benefit
from its bounty of dead birds.
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?
Well, it's either that, or this tree
just really, really hates birds.
Killer Coconuts.
There's an old, urban legend that coconuts kill
more than 150 people per year,
by falling out of trees at a great height
and cracking them on the head.
Fortunately, though, this is totally false.
It's a fabricated statistic popularized by shark activists
to demonstrate the relatively low number
of shark-attack related fatalities, with 10 casualties
on average caused by sharks each year.
However, that doesn't mean coconuts are shy.

In all seriousness, if a coconut weighing four pounds
fell 80 ft onto a person's head,
the impact velocity would be 50 mph.
The force of that would be roughly equivalent
to the weight of one ton.
And coconuts dropped from lower heights
have resulted in ER trauma admissions,
with injuries caused to the back, shoulders, and head.
There have even been fatalities caused by coconuts.
In 1973, a young child in Hawaii
was fatally injured while playing in a park
after a coconut in a nearby tree fell on them.
And in 2002, a fatal incident involving a falling coconut
on a beach in Northern Queensland, Australia,
lead to authorities removing coconut trees
from all their beaches.
So be careful where you decide to take a nap on holiday,
or this falling fruit might be the last thing you ever see.

Sinister Shipworms.
All right, I'm about to show you something that's gross.
So gross, I can hardly look at it myself.
Still here, well, you have been warned.
Now, let me introduce you to a frightening sight
that could suddenly slide out of any tree
you might find near sea water.
These are shipworms.
Despite their name, they're technically a member
of the mollusc family, a group of saltwater clams
with long, soft white bodies.
They are infamous for burrowing into structures
such as piers, docks, and ships,
anywhere where wood meets the sea, shipworms will be there.
They settle onto wooden structures as larvae,
where they begin to excavate the wood,
burrowing themselves inside as they grow into adulthood,
spending their whole lives
munching great long tracks through the wooden beams.
The tunneling of shipworms
can cause dangerous structural weaknesses
and result in shipwrecks and pier collapses,
alongside a nasty shower of slimy worms, gross.
Nevertheless, in the Philippines,
shipworms are known locally as Tamilok,
and are considered a delicious delicacy.
Here, they're 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.
I think I'll be safe though,
seeing how I just lost my appetite forever.
Trippy Tree.
At a glance, the pretty flowers dangling from this tree
really steal the show.
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.
The official name of this plant is Brugmansia,
and originally it was native to the wilds of South America,
though it can now be found a lot closer to home,
perhaps even in your garden.
Brugmansia is considered by many as an ornamental plant
perfect to have in a pot on the patio.
But don't be fooled, it's also one
of the most toxic trees you can grow.
To both humans and animals,
the toxins of this plant can be fatal.
In their native climates, Brugmansia can grow upwards
of 20 feet tall, the entire tree
covered in foot long trumpet-shaped flowers.
However, be warned because contact with this plant
can trigger anticholinergic syndrome
in the central nervous system,
leaving sufferers completely paralyzed and confused.
It's so dangerous that ecologists routinely
have to wear hazmat suits while working with it.
But that's not all! the toxin can also trigger
auditory and visual hallucinations.
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.
Back in 2006, a young man was admitted to hospital
after drinking a cup of Red Angel's trumpet tea.
He seemed to be searching for a high, but instead,
in the throws of a vivid hallucination,
he cut off his tongue and his trumpet.
Now that's what you call a bad trip.
Imposter Problems.
If you ever go on a walk through an orchard in Brazil,
you may come across a tree smothered in black boils.
But before you hail down the locals
and warn them of an oncoming plague, take a closer look.
They're actually berries.
Delicious and edible berries of the Jaboticaba Tree
to be precise.
Native to three states of Brazil,
and in season for just a few weeks of the year,
these berries grow in a bizarre fashion.
They smother the tree trunk like a clutch of alien eggs,
rather than in the usual way
of appearing amongst the leaves.
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.
However, when it comes to figuring out
which black berries are safe to eat,
you best leave that to the Brazilians.
Without an untrained eye, many other luscious-looking
black berries are in fact poisonous.
Pokeweed, a common sight in South America,
bears inviting black berries on bright purple stems.
But, unlike the delicious Jaboticaba berries,
these cause violent cramping, difficulty breathing
and eventual asphyxiation.
But it's far from the only dangerous black berry out there.
Atropa Belladonna, 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 Jaboticaba.
But don't be fooled by their similar appearance,
because eating even a single Nightshade berry
can cause hallucinations, psychosis, and convulsions.
Eating just two disrupts involuntary systems
throughout your body, like sweating,
breathing, and your heart rate, which can prove fatal.
The best rule to follow
is to always avoid wild black berries.
Unless you find them growing
directly from a tree trunk in Brazil.
Hidden Honey Locust.
The leaves of the Honey Locust Tree,
commonly found across the US,
turn and incredible shade of orange in the fall.
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 11 inches.
Flick knives with blades longer than 2.5 inches
are generally illegal to carry in most US states,
so it's fair to say this is a seriously gangster tree.
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.
They're so big and nasty that they've been known
to puncture the tires of field tractors.
And some horrifying accounts
have even described these thorns
piercing right through people's skin
to fracture the bone.
The thorns are thought to have evolved to protect the tree
from giant animals that used to roam the earth
during the worlds last ice age, like wooly mammoths.
Those animals have since gone extinct,
but the honey locust tree has hung onto its weaponry.
On the other hand, the honey locust's close cousin,
the black locust tree, takes its thorny weaponry
a step further.
The black locust tree has fewer and shorter spikes
but it laces them with the poisonous phytotoxin,
called robin, which can cause muscle weakness
and kidney failure.
So, if you see a tree with thorny spikes,
be warned and steer clear,
as they evolved to fight off wooly mammoths,
so they won't find humans much of a challenge.
Weird Whistling.
The savannas of equatorial East Africa
are great rolling planes punctuated here
and there by vegetation.
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.
This is the Whistling Thorn,
an Acacia tree that can grow up to 18 feet tall.
But that's not all it grows.
On either side of a swollen vine,
the tree boasts tens of pairs of huge spikes
which each reach three inches long.
But the thorns are the least of your concerns,
as the swollen bases of these thorns
are naturally hollow.
This makes them the perfect spot for a whole variety
of insects to move in.
Ants in particular reside inside the tree
in a symbiotic relationship, using the hollows
of the swollen vines to build their nests
and acting as a defense for the tree.
The fire ants protect the tree
by swarming out of their nests and attacking any intruders
brave enough to try and mess with the tree.
An attack from a fire ant typically causes instant,
intense pain.
The pain quickly gives way to itching
and intense skin irritation
that lasts anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
And worker fire ants are determined soldiers,
so they won't stop until the job's done, ouch.

Every few years, the ant colonies relocate their base
to another swollen vine, leaving behind a hollow thorn.
When the wind blows, it whistles through the hollows
in the old, abandoned thorny vines,
leaving the tree to whistle threateningly in the wind.
So, if you ever hear an ominous whistling
floating over the African savannahs,
turn on your heel and run the other way.
Have you ever seen any of these dangerous trees in person?
And which of these was your least favorite?
Let me know down in the comments below
and thanks for watching.
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