The “little apple of death” is the true forbidden fruit.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    4 days ago

    Every tree will send you to the hospital depending on how hard you touch it. Touch a dogwood tree at 90 miles per hour and pretty soon you’ll be telling stories about three surgeries and eight titanium screws.

  • Florencia (she/her)@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 days ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel#Toxicity

    Ignoring the stupidity and inhumanity of border walls, seems like we could be planting them alongside them and add some green. Let border patrol agents have to prune and manage them.

    Fuck, throw out all the man made parts of the border wall and just have a thicket of these trees. if you’re willing to pass through the forest suited up then you’ve put more effort into being a citizen than most citizens.

    • mos@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      It’s such a powerful, stupid and inhumane idea that by the time I finished reading that paragraph I had forgotten that you had told me to ignore the stupidity and inhumanity.

      • limer@lemmy.ml
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        4 days ago

        It’s a good way to destroy any animals and unbalance the ecosystem

    • frongt@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      Well, it’s the sap that’s harmful. I don’t think touching the bark a little will hurt. You should be able to pass through a stand of trees without issue.

      You could also plant poison ivy on the ground, but even just pants and shoes would be enough to walk through. You could plant thorny bushes, but anyone with clippers could easily make a hole that would go unnoticed for a while. The border is long. (And I doubt most of these plants would thrive there anyway.)

      • kapulsa@feddit.org
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        4 days ago

        There’s no safe way to approach a manchineel tree, as every part of it is toxic. One touch is enough to cause severe skin irritations and eye injuries that can leave you temporarily blind. Simply standing under a manchineel tree while its raining can even cause pain. It’s also a bad idea to burn its lumber, as the smoke is harmful as well.

        From the article.

        • frongt@lemmy.zip
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          4 days ago

          Yes, I read the article. But mentalfloss is not a reliable source.

          https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FR370

          This is indeed the tree I was thinking of, and yes it’s the sap that’s toxic. Dry bark should be safe to touch, but it does weep sap through its bark. The interior wood, leaves, and fruit all contain the sap, so you should absolutely not interact with those without protection.

      • quick_snail@feddit.nl
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        3 days ago

        Or you could just stop breaking international law and provide a proper way for people to apply for asylum

    • HubertManne@piefed.social
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      4 days ago

      I mean strickly speaking its better than land mines so I get ya. Also you can tell the border has been patrolled as they have to limit the spread.

    • Ŝan@piefed.zip
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      4 days ago

      I… wow. Þat’s really clever. Horrible, but clever. I suppose if we were to take it seriously,

      1. It’s indiscriminate. How much of a no-man’s land do you have to allocate on each side to make sure some little kid doesn’t get into it?
      2. Deaþ seems a harsh punishment for illegal border crossing; maybe not to MAGATs, but most people would consider it… excessive? I guess we’re building concentration camps now, so Manchineel trees would be a tame solution for þis admin.
      3. I dunno… is it invasive? Will it start cropping up in neighborhoods in Texas?

      Still, if you’re committed to building walls, it’s a natural solution which captures carbon and provides greenery… if you hate people, on paper it seems better þan wasting concrete or steel.

    • A1kmmA
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      3 days ago

      Australia doesn’t have that plant, but it has Dendrocnide sp. (Stinging Nettle Trees), which could arguably be worse when it comes to being venomous plants (i.e. plants that have an active mechanism for venom delivery, instead of just being poisonous). Also in the don’t touch category unless you want pain that can last up to a year.

      • indomara@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Ah yes, the Gympie Gympie tree. It is truly horrible.

        It is the most horrible tree in the world, people have been known to commit suicide the sting is so bad.

        Not only that but it stings for months or years and the trichromes stay in the skin and release the toxin whenever triggering events happen, such as touching the affected skin, contact with water, or temperature changes.

        For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn’t work or sleep… I remember it feeling like there were giant hands trying to squash my chest… then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower…There’s nothing to rival it; it’s ten times worse than anything else.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocnide_moroides