Summary

MANCHINEEL (BARBADOS)
 Hippomane mancinella
 “little apple of death”, “beach apple”
 All parts of the tree are poisonous
 Toxin: hippomanin A and B
 burning & tearing sensation, pain, a rash and headache to acute to severe dermatitis, severe breathing problems and
"temporary painful blindness", blisters
 Eating the fruit usually causes abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding and digestive tract damage
 To warn people, residents put red band on the trunk, warning signs or barricades around the tree.
 People tend to leave manchineel alone because even this poison-obsessed tree provides ecosystem services. It's a
natural windbreak and fights beach erosion.

ARTICLE:

Why manchineel might be Earth's most dangerous tree

RUSSELL MCLENDON – October 23, 2014

The manchineel tree may be endangered, but so is anyone who messes with it. That's because this rare tropical
plant, which offers deceptively sweet fruit, is one of the most poisonous trees on Earth.
Manchineels are notorious in their native habitats, the sandy soils and mangroves of South Florida, the
Caribbean, Barbados, Central America and northern South America.
The fruits are the most obvious threat, earning manchineel the name manzanita de la muerte, or "little apple of
death," from Spanish conquistadors. Resembling a small green crabapple about 1 to 2 inches wide, the sweet-
smelling fruits can cause hours of agony — and potentially death — with a single bite.

"I rashly took a bite from this fruit and found it pleasantly sweet," radiologist Nicola Strickland wrote in a 2000
British Medical Journal article about eating manchineel with a friend. "Moments later we noticed a strange
peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the
throat. The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the
excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump."
Poison apples are just the beginning, though. Every part of a manchineel is toxic, and according to the Florida
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS), "interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be
lethal." That includes bark, leaves and the milky sap, one drop of which can scorch the skin of shade-seeking
beach-goers. Even without touching the tree itself, people (and car paint) have been burned by the thick, caustic
sap as rain washes it off branches overhead.

The tree holds a cocktail of toxins, including hippomanin A and B as well as some yet to be identified. A few act
instantly, according to "Poisonous Plants and Animals of Florida and the Caribbean" by David Nellis, while
others take their time. Symptoms from contact with sap range from a rash and headache to acute dermatitis,
severe breathing problems and "temporary painful blindness," Nellis writes. Burning or chopping the wood isn't
advised, either, since its smoke and sawdust burn skin, eyes and lungs.
Eating the fruit usually causes abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding and digestive tract damage, Nellis adds.
Death is widely considered a risk, but mortality data for ingesting the manchineel fruit — informally known as a
"beach apple" — are scarce. And aside from the short-term danger, some manchineel compounds may be co-
carcinogenic, promoting the growth of benign and malignant tumors.

Residents, to warn tourists and other people who is unfamiliar of the tree, put a red band on the tree, warning
signs or barricade around the tree.

People tend to leave manchineel alone, both for obvious reasons and because even this poison-obsessed tree
provides ecosystem services. It's a natural windbreak and fights beach erosion, for instance, a useful service in
the face of rising sea levels and bigger Atlantic storms. And since biotoxins can inspire beneficial scientific
breakthroughs like safer pesticides from scorpion venom or pain medicine from cone snails, it's probably worth
keeping manchineel around — at a safe distance.