I want one!
I can't imagine a better deterrent to trespassers and the like as having a big ol' manchineel (Hippomane mancinella) in my yard.
Looks really...tame, doesn't it? The fruit is so poisonous and caustic that your throat will swell from just a single bite. The only creature who can eat the fruit without harm is the blue land crab, which is considered delicious by the peoples of the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the people? If you eat a land crab that's been snacking on manchineel, you can get horrible ulcers and oral lesions.
Carib natives used a few leaves from the tree to poison their enemies' wells. Just how poisonous ARE the leaves? The leaves are so toxic, that even water dripping from them in a rainstorm contains enough toxic latex to cause severe caustic burns. The natives lashed captured enemies to a manchineel's trunk before a rainstorm as a form of torture.
Burning the tree is a bad idea, too. That sends the sap airborn. Mmm, burning lungs. Just cutting into the tree is dangerous, because sap can squirt out at you.
Mmm, contact dermatitis.
Looks really...tame, doesn't it? The fruit is so poisonous and caustic that your throat will swell from just a single bite. The only creature who can eat the fruit without harm is the blue land crab, which is considered delicious by the peoples of the Caribbean. Unfortunately for the people? If you eat a land crab that's been snacking on manchineel, you can get horrible ulcers and oral lesions.
Carib natives used a few leaves from the tree to poison their enemies' wells. Just how poisonous ARE the leaves? The leaves are so toxic, that even water dripping from them in a rainstorm contains enough toxic latex to cause severe caustic burns. The natives lashed captured enemies to a manchineel's trunk before a rainstorm as a form of torture.
Burning the tree is a bad idea, too. That sends the sap airborn. Mmm, burning lungs. Just cutting into the tree is dangerous, because sap can squirt out at you.
Mmm, contact dermatitis.