At the moment, there is no antidote for a gympie sting. Doctors advise victims not to rub the stung area since this can break the hairs even more causing them to spread further in the skin. Pouring a 1:10 solution of diluted hydrochloric acid over the sting can also help a bit with the pain.
Therapy and treatment
Some consider that the antidote for the poisoning by Gympie could be the plant Cunjevoi (lat. Alocasia brisbanensis), but there is no strong evidence to confirm this. In most cases the poisoned surface is treated by a 10% solution of hydrochloric acid.
A general gympie gympie treatment is to take pain medicines — like over-the-counter anti-inflammatories — to help manage your symptoms. You can also try applying various soothing creams to the affected area. Ask your doctor for the best brand recommendations. Eventually, symptoms should clear up on their own.
The agony caused by brushing against the notorious Gympie-Gympie tree can last for weeks, even months, but researchers hope its toxins may one day be converted to provide non-opioid pain relief without harmful side effects.
The hairs pierce your skin and can break off. The sting lasts as long as the hairs remain below your skin; until your body physically forces them out. The pain from broken hairs can last for days to months. Photo of a gympie-gympie plant.
And all it takes is a moment for a gympie-gympie to strike. "If touched for even a second, the tiny hair-like needles will deliver a burning sensation that will intensify for the next 20 to 30 minutes," Alnwick Garden said, "continuing for weeks or even months."
Australia is home to many venomous critters, but did you also know the country also hosts one of the world's most venomous plants? The gympie-gympie stinging tree can cause intense burning pain for weeks, if not months.
After contact with the plant the victim will feel an immediate severe burning and stinging at the site of contact, which then intensifies further over the next 20 to 30 minutes and will last from hours to several days before subsiding.
Effects of the Neurotoxin
Mike Leahy explains gympie-gympie's deadly effects: The first thing you'll feel is a really intense burning sensation and this grows over the next half hour, becoming more and more painful.
Place in the ecosystem
The Australian stinging trees are native, and are eaten by some mammals, birds and insects without harming them, as well as providing places to live.
How to Identify Gympie-Gympie. The gympie-gympie is a soft-wooded, straggly perennial shrub with large, broad, heart-shaped, toothed foliage. Because of the density of the stinging hairs that cover the leaves, they have a furry appearance. All parts of the plant have a covering of stinging hairs, not just the leaves.
Dendrocnide moroides, commonly known as the stinging tree, stinging bush, Queensland Stinger or the gympie-gympie, is notorious for an extremely painful sting that can leave victims suffering for weeks, or even months.
Perhaps the most famously lethal on our list is Atropa belladonna, the aptly named Deadly Nightshade. This toxic plant belongs to the same family as tomatoes, potatoes and aubergines, and can be found across Europe, including in Britain, as well as North Africa, Western Asia and some parts of the USA and Canada.
Nettle stings can be itchy and you may feel a stinging or burning sensation. This will usually settle down within a few minutes or a few days and you can often treat them yourself.
Stinging nettle
If touched, these needle-like hairs inject the stinging acid into the skin, triggering a burning, tingling sensation and an itchy rash.
This perennial originates in Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. Though covered in stinging "hairs" that act as needles injecting passersby with formic acid, it loses its sting when dried or cooked. Also known as nettles, common nettles, nettle leaf, and seven minute itch.
Baking soda is a great way to help neutralise the venom of a bee sting. All you need to do is create a thick paste out of baking soda and water and apply it to the sting.
How to treat stinging nettle stings. If you really want to neutralise the effect of the nettle sting's acid and dock leaves don't work for you, try treating it with soap, milk or a dilute solution of baking soda, all of which are alkaline.
Humans can eat the juicy fruit of the gympie-gympie, but only if they have taken the time to properly and painstakingly remove every one of its hairs. Then, there are some who have considered using it as a biological weapon.
When you think of all the dangerous things that reside in Florida, trees probably don't come to mind, but the state is actually home to the “most dangerous” tree in the world. The manchineel tree (Hippomane mancinella), according to the Guinness World Records, is the world's most dangerous tree.
The manchineel tree is the most dangerous tree on the planet. A single bite of the fruit can lead to death, and touching the bark, sap or leaves results in painful blisters.
Plants do not have pain receptors, which is a critical sign that plants do not experience pain in the same way that animals do. Yet the potential to feel pain cannot be inferred simply from the presence of pain receptors alone, specifically, sensory neurons such as nociceptors.
Although called a tree, the Gympie-Gympie is a soft-wooded shrub that can reach 4-5m, but is often found as a smaller shrub around 0.1-1m tall.