The Suicide Tree
This ornamental plant known as “pong-pong,”(Cerbera odollam) by the natives can be found in the swamps of India and southern Asia. Despite its seemingly cute name, its other name has a much more sinister context, the suicide tree. It has most certainly earned that name as many thousands of people use this plant to commit suicide, and it is certainly not a pleasant way to go.
Much like with other plants on this list, the suicide tree has deceptive looking fruits that can easily entice people to take a bite. Apart from its beautiful white flowers, this plant has a small mango like fruit that looks very appealing to the uninformed, but don’t be fooled as the seeds of the fruit are highly toxic as they contain glycoside cerberin.
The cerberin acts as a steroid, blocking the calcium ion channels and within hours of eating this deadly fruit you will experience severe stomach distress, diarrhea, irregular heart rhythms, cardiac distress, and vomiting. Whether you take a bite or eat the whole thing, it makes little difference as a single seed from this fruit has enough toxicity to kill a adult human slowly and painfully.
1 thought on “8 Beautiful Plants That Just Want to Kill You!”
Thank you for this information I have small children around my yard often. Fortunatly I am aware of toxic plants in Fl. thanks to my garden club we hada speaker from UF to help us identify the dangerous plants . I don’t have any of the toxic ones in my yard.