This plant makes you feel agony

It's an Aussie native with a sting you won't forget

By Smartasaurus· 1 min read Curious

Imagine a plant so agonizingly painful... horses have actually leaped off…

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The short version

It's an Aussie native with a sting you won't forget
There are stories of horses jumping off cliffs to escape the agony and forest workers who had to be strapped to hospital beds for weeks.
Strangely, while it can drive a human to madness, some species of marsupials and beetles eat the leaves for breakfast.

Touching the Gympie-Gympie tree feels like being burnt by hot acid and electrocuted at the same time. This unassuming Australian shrub is covered in millions of microscopic, hollow silica hairs. When you brush against them, they act like hypodermic needles, injecting a stable neurotoxin that the human body cannot easily break down.

The pain doesn't peak and then fade. It can intensify over 20 or 30 minutes, swelling the lymph nodes until they feel like they are being crushed. Because the tiny glass-like hairs remain lodged in the skin, the pain can flare up every time you take a cold shower or rub the area, even years after the initial contact.

There are stories of horses jumping off cliffs to escape the agony and forest workers who had to be strapped to hospital beds for weeks. The toxin is so resilient that even dried leaves kept in a lab for a hundred years can still deliver a full-strength sting.

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