8 most dangerous plants in the world that you should stay away from

1. Castor bean

• Scientific name: Ricinus communis.
• Spreading: Worldwide. Mostly in Africa, India, Brazil, Argentina, China and Iran.

In tropical and subtropical areas, castor beans remain green all year round and can grow up to 10 meters high. In temperate climates, it grows only to 2–5 meters in height. Castor bean seeds are used to produce castor oil.

But all parts of the plant - especially the fruits - contain a protein called ricin and the alkaloid ricinin, which dangerous for people and animals. When ingested, the seeds cause vomiting, colic, gastrointestinal bleeding, bloody diarrhea, cramps and severe dehydration. Without medical assistance, death occurs within 5 days.

Ricin causes serious harm even to those who survive, as it can irreversibly destroy proteins in human tissue.

But don't worry—the castor oil you can buy at the pharmacy is harmless. When the plant is industrially processed, the poison is removed from its products. But it’s better to be careful with live castor beans.

2. White snakeroot

• Scientific name: Ageratina Altissima.
• Spreading: eastern and central North America.

The herbaceous plant Ageratina Altissima received its alternative name because the Shawnee Native Americans used it to treat bites. snake. However, this idea is dubious, because it contains a toxin called tremetol.

This poison can easily kill a person if ingested. But what's worse is when cattle eat Ageratina Altissima, meat and milk become poisonous. And in the mid-19th century, thousands of American settlers died from eating poisoned animal products.

Trimethol poisoning was called “milk sickness” by the Americans. It is known that because of him, Nancy Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln, died in 1818.

The symptoms are terrible: thirst, vomiting, abdominal pain, and sometimes bloody urine and foul breath. Moreover, white snakeroot remains poisonous even in a dried state for at least five years.

3. Manzinella

• Scientific name: Hippomane mancinella.
• Spreading: from the tropical south of North America to the north of South America.

Manchinella, or poison apple, is one of the most dangerous trees in the world. It belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family.

All parts of the plant, including fruits, leaves and bark, allocate an extremely toxic milky sap containing a compound called phorbol. On contact with skin it causes severe painful burns, ulcers and inflamed blisters. The juice is so hot that it can damage the paint on your car.

Even just being near a poisonous apple is dangerous.

Drops of rain or dew falling from manchinella leaves become toxic. Inhaling smoke from burning plant branches causes serious breathing problems. And if you eat the manchinella fruit, which has an attractive sweetish smell, you will quickly develop a painful shock from burns to your internal organs.

Carib tribes used manchineel tree to poison the water sources of his enemies. And also lubricated arrows plant juice - to provide the enemy struck by such a shot with a lot of amazing sensations.

4. Hura

• Scientific name: Hura crepitans.
• Spreading: The Bahamas, from Nicaragua to southern Bolivia, and also in parts of Africa. Namely - in Guinea, Benin and the Central African Republic.

Other Name Khura - dynamite wood. And believe me, it received it for a reason. The fruits of the plant look like small pumpkins. When they ripen, they fly into segments with a deafening crash, launching their seeds at a distance of up to 100 meters. The speed of such a release can reach 70 m/s.

If such “shrapnel” gets into the face, no one will feel bad.

But it was not enough for the tree to simply grow anti-personnel hand grenades on its branches. It is also equipped with extremely sharp spines. milky juice, consequential from broken spines, is capable of corroding the skin, causing poisoning, and if it gets into the eyes - loss of vision. American tribes even used it to poison fish.

If you try to burn a tree, the toxins, along with the smoke, will enter the lungs and cause serious irritation of the respiratory tract - worse than any tear gas.

5. Gympie-gimpie

• Scientific name: Dendrocnide moroides.
• Spreading: tropical forests of the Malay Archipelago and Australia.

Australia has a lot of interesting things - and dangerous things. For example, poisonous spiders the size of a plate and hares that can knock out any kickboxer... Just kidding, we are talking about kangaroos. But even the nettles of Australians are not the same as in the rest of the world.

The gimpy-gimpy, or stinging tree from the nettle family, is covered with tiny, stinging hairs that contain extremely potent neurotoxin. Upon contact with the skin, it causes terrible pain - those who have experienced it compare the sensations with burn fire, acid and electric shock at the same time.

The pain may last for several days or even months.

Ernie Ryder, a senior conservation officer with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, touched his body and face to a stinging tree one day in 1963. And by words men, there was nothing worse in his life. It was a terrible scabies, the ranger felt as if “giant hands were pressing on his chest,” and the pain lasted for two years! The burning returned every time Ernie took a cold shower.

In Australia also popular the story of how one soldier during World War II used a piece of gimpy-gimpy instead of toilet paper during exercises. The unfortunate man suffered so much that he committed suicide.

At the same time, it is dangerous not only to touch the gimpy-gimpy, but also to simply stand next to it. The stinging hairs often fall off the leaves and fly in the air around the tree, causing throat burns and nosebleeds.

However, exists several species of marsupials, insects and birds, which feed on the leaves and fruits of this plant and are immune to its burns. Habit is a learned thing.

6. Cerberus

• Scientific name: Cerbera odollam.
• Spreading: tropical Asia, Australia, Madagascar, Seychelles, islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

This tree is extremely dangerous, as its sap contains Cerberin toxin is a poisonous glycoside that stops the transmission of electrical impulses in the body. When it enters the body, it blocks calcium ions in the heart muscle, gradually slowing the heart rate. Cerberus is so poisonous that even the smoke from a burned tree can kill.

Another name for it is the suicide tree.

The fact is that cerberin is very difficult to detect during autopsy. That's why in India this poison used both for murder and for committing suicide.

In addition, among some peoples of Madagascar, Cerberus was used to test suspects of serious crimes. If a convicted person ate a leaf and his heart could not stand it, then he was guilty.

However, the plant can also be used for peaceful purposes. Its fruits are, for example, used to produce bioinsecticides and deodorants.

7. Ongaonga

• Scientific name: Urtica ferox.
• Spreading: New Zealand.

This is a really harsh plant: it reaches a height of 5 meters, has a tree-like trunk and unusually large, stinging spines. In fact, the name Urtica ferox itself is translated from Latin as “fierce nettle.”

Ongaonga spines allocate triffidin toxin. It was named after the triffids - walking predatory plants from the novel by John Wyndham. It contains histamine, serotonin, acetylcholine and formic acid and upon contact with the skin causes severe burns, inflammation, rash and itching.

In high concentrations, the toxin can also cause paralysis, low blood pressure, seizures, blurred vision and loss of consciousness. And if you wander deep into the ongaonga thickets, you may well die.

Indigenous people of New Zealand, Maori, tried it make medicines from this plant - in particular, for eczema and sexually transmitted diseases. However, the effectiveness of such therapy is, to put it mildly, questionable.

In general, if you go as a tourist to the homeland of the hobbits, do not get close to any leafy grass that grows there.

8. Hogweed

• Scientific name: Heracleum sosnówskyi.
• Spreading: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland.

If gimpy-gimpy, ongaonga and cerberus grow far in the subtropics, where not everyone visits, then Sosnovsky's hogweed is our “friendly” neighbor. It was planted in the Soviet Union as a fodder plant, but it turned out to be completely unsuitable for consumption by livestock. Naturally, people began to guess about this only after the invasive species had sown hundreds of hectares of farmland.

In hogweed juice contained furanocoumarins are compounds that deprive the skin of its natural protection against ultraviolet rays. After contact with the plant, terrible burns and blisters occur on the face and body. And if the juice gets on the mucous membrane of the eyes, you can easily lose your sight.

Hogweed spreads aggressively, displacing other plants. It reaches a height of three meters and forms dense thickets. If you wander through them without proper protection, you can suffer skin damage, fraught with death, or, at best, with deep scars.

Even burning thickets is not always effective, because hogweed is able to reproduce extremely quickly by roots and seeds. So The best way destroying the plant monster - chemical herbicides.