Australia’s infamous poisonous stinger tree is completely toxic, but its stems are particularly dangerous. The first reports of its properties came from a North Queensland road inspector in 1866, who said that his packhorse accidentally touched the tree and then “went berserk and died two hours later”.
In modern times, 42-year-old Naoimh Lewis from Cairns had the misfortune to ride her bicycle into a stinging tree thicket. She said the pain was hellish, followed by nausea. Naoim’s husband had to rush to the pharmacy for wax strips to remove the poisonous plant’s bristles from her skin until an ambulance arrived.
The woman stayed in hospital for a week, all the while being wrapped in thermal blankets to reduce the pain. As Naomi herself added, she has four children, three of whom she delivered by caesarean section, and all of those births would not compare in pain to being exposed to the dreaded plant.
