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The toxin produced by a dangerous ‘sting tree’ is comparable to a scorpion or spider bite, according to a new study.
Found throughout eastern Australia, the dendrochnid plant is among the most toxic flora on Earth and bites can kill dogs or horses and cause excruciating pain in humans that lasts for weeks, even months.
But so far researchers have been unable to identify the neurotoxin secreted by the plant, also known as the Gympie-Gympie tree, until now.
The team discovered that the culprit is a new class of toxic miniproteins that has been dubbed ‘gympietides’, after the indigenous name for the itchy tree.
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The Dendrocnide moroides plant, also known as the Gympie-Gympie stinging tree, is the world’s most painful nettle. Until now, scientists have not been able to identify the neurotoxin that the plant secretes.
The leaves, stems, and raspberry-like fruit of Gympie-Gympie are densely covered with hair-like bumps called trichomes, which are less than one-fifth of an inch long.
Those hairs make the leaves look attractive, Gilding told The New York Times, “like it’s a friendly, hairy green plant you’d want to rub.”
But when they come into contact with the skin, they are more like little hypodermic ones, shedding and injecting a painful toxin.
The Gympie-Gympie bite tree is covered in tiny hairs that look attractive, but stick to the skin and inject a toxin that causes agonizing pain.
A child stung by a giant Australian tree. One researcher compared it to ‘being burned with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time’.
As reported in the journal Science Advances, Kalani Gilding, Irina Vetter and a team of researchers from the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland discovered that the culprit was an entirely new class of toxic miniproteins.
Dr Marina Hurley, who did her PhD work on stinging trees, said a brush with the plant, dubbed the ‘suicide tree’, is ‘like being burned with hot acid and electrocuted at the same time’.
“ Not only does he feel pain where he was bitten, if it is a really bad sting, in about 20 minutes his lymph nodes under his arms swell and throb painfully, ” Hurley wrote in The Conversation. ‘[They] it feels like they’re being hit between two blocks of wood. ‘
In a historical account from the 1940s, a soldier said that the pain was so intense that they had to tie him to the hospital bed for three weeks.
Trichomes remain potent for decades, Hurley said, and dead, dried specimens from a century ago can still sting.
An enlarged view of the tree’s trichomes. Fine hairs remain powerful for decades; dry specimens from a century ago can still sting
There is no real cure: hairs are so fine that wax strips are sometimes used to pluck them out.
The Gympie-Gympie, scientifically known as Dendrocnide moroides, can grow up to 10 feet tall with 20-inch-long leaves.
Dr. Marina Hurley studied the huge toxic plants for her PhD and had to wear a dust mask and cover her arms and legs when she was working. Standing near one unprotected for 20 minutes is enough to cause violent sneezing, nosebleeds, and even breathing problems.
But you don’t even have to touch him to feel his anger – being around one unprotected for 20 minutes is enough to cause violent sneezing, nosebleeds, and even breathing problems.
The hairs can remain on the skin for months and the bites recur if the skin is pressed hard or washed with cold or hot water.
Hurley said the only way he would handle the free is by wearing a dust mask and thick, padded welding gloves.
Although they come from a plant, gympietides target the same pain receptors as venom found in arachnids and cone snails, the researchers say, making Gympie-Gympie a truly ‘poisonous’ plant.
Vetter says that persistent pain can be caused by gympietides permanently changing sodium channels in the victim’s sensory neurons, not because the fine hairs get stuck in the skin.
“By understanding how this toxin works, we hope to provide better treatment for those who have been bitten by the plant, to relieve or eliminate pain,” he said.
Because toxins from trees target a nerve cell molecule that is critical to our response to pain, researching them can also help figure out how to block pain receptors.
It is still unclear why Gympie-Gympie developed this nasty defense.
While it is toxic to humans and other animals, its leaves and fruit are a precious food for beetles, birds, and pallon, an Australian marsupial related to the wallaby.
What is the Gympie-Gympie bite tree?
The Dendrocnide moroides plant is believed to be the most powerful and deadly nettle in the world.
It can kill animals with severe allergic reactions and cause excruciating pain that lasts for weeks in humans.
The Dendrocnide plant, also known as the Gympie-Gympie sting tree
D. moroides is nicknamed after the Queensland town of Gympie, where it was discovered in 1860.
The pain is caused by tiny hairs that cover the leaves, stem, and fruits of plants, which can grow up to 10 feet tall with 20-inch-wide leaves.
When the hairs touch the skin, the tip is broken and the hair shaft sticks to the skin, injecting a toxin in the same way as a hypodermic needle.
