The fruit of these trees look a bit like mulberries, but can be white, pink and dark red in colour. The
Known colloquially as the gympie gympie (from the Gubbi Gubbi/ Kabi Kabi name for the plant, gimpi gimpi), gympie stinger, and giant stinging tree (D. excelsa), this plant has the dubious honour of being arguably the most painful plant in the world.
Known as Gympie-gympie in Australia and salat in Papua New Guinea, contact with this leaf can result in human death, more often extreme pain that can last for months. Stinging hairs deliver a potent neurotoxin when touched. Leaf has medicinal purposes in some PNG tribes. Scientific name is Dendrocnide moroides.
Stinging nettle
The leaves and young stems of this herbaceous plant are fitted with stinging hairs tipped with formic acid and other irritants. If touched, these needle-like hairs inject the stinging acid into the skin, triggering a burning, tingling sensation and an itchy rash.
Nettles are plants with sharp hairs on their leaves. If you touch them, these hairs inject irritants into the skin, making it itchy, red and swollen.
These soft herbs occur as weeds in damp areas and are sparsely covered with rigid, stinging hairs. The flowers are small and greenish in colour. The leaves are opposite to each other on the stem and have serrated margins.
A stinging nettle sting can feel like a bee sting: sharp, sudden, and very painful. It's almost an instinct to look for a bee or stinging ant as the culprit rather than the tall straggly plants along a trail or weeds in a garden. Even a small nettle plant only a few inches tall can deliver a nasty sting.
Many plants can cause skin irritation that can lead to a rash. These include poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, stinging nettles, ragweed, leadwort, baby's breath, and giant hogweed.
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.
The most painful
Another common introduced stinger in Australia is the European wasp, Vespula germanica. This wasp's sting doesn't get stuck in our skin, so they can inflict multiple stings when annoyed or provoked.
Possibly the most dangerous stinging insect on earth, the bullet ant sting causes extreme pain which ranks at 4.0+ on the Schmidt Index.
Urtica incisa, commonly called scrub nettle, stinging nettle, and tall nettle, is an upright perennial herb native to streams and rainforest of eastern and southern Australia, from the north–east southwards through the east, of Queensland and New South Wales, then across the south, through Victoria, Tasmania, south- ...
Botanical name: Dendrocnide excelsa, (also known as Laportea gigas), Dendrocnide moroides, (also known as Laportea moroides). General description: These species are common in Queensland rainforests especially on the edges or in disturbed areas.
Plants may also cause allergic contact dermatitis
Examples of plants in Australia that may cause contact dermatitis are chrysanthemums, primula, tomato plants, grevillea, english ivy and occasionally rhus trees.
Poison Ivy: The Best-Known Itchy Plant
Poison ivy leaves grow in clusters of three on vines that can grow up into trees or trail along the ground. Every part of the plant contains the compound called urushiol, which causes poison ivy's notorious rash — the vine, the roots, the leaves, the flowers, and the berries.
A mistake people without much experience outdoors can make is to not recognize Virginia creeper. The woody stem perennial vine is sometimes mistaken as poison ivy.
Nettles have adapted to have stinging hairs to reduce the likelihood of predators eating them. Most creatures know to keep away. Dead nettles (see 'Imperson-ators' box) look alike, and grow near nettles which are avoided by predators because of their sting.
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. They may cause a raised area nettle rash on the skin.
If the stinger remains in your skin, remove it by scraping over it with your fingernail or a piece of gauze. Never use tweezers to remove a stinger, as squeezing it can cause more venom to release into your skin. Wash the sting with soap and water. Apply a cold pack to reduce swelling.
"Water hemlock is the most violently toxic plant that grows in North America," the USDA notes. 5 Water hemlock has a toxin called cicutoxin that even in small amounts can trigger violent seizures that lead to cardiac arrest and death.
Cooking or drying neutralises the toxic components, and nettles can be used as a tea or in soup, blanched for a salad or even added to pizza. Nettles are high in nutrients such iron, magnesium and nitrogen. If you get them out before they set seed they can be added to compost or dug in as a green manure crop.
Dendrocnide moroides, commonly known in Australia as the stinging tree, stinging bush, or gympie-gympie, is a plant in the nettle family Urticaceae found in rainforest areas of Malesia and Australia. It is notorious for its extremely painful and long-lasting sting.
Gympie Gympie
Even the lightest touch can leave victims suffering for weeks, if not months at a time. Infamously known as the most venomous plant in Australia, contact with Gympie Gympie will cause immediate and severe burning that intensifies in just 20 to 30 minutes.