Plant that makes you feel

A venomous plant that can make you feel as though you’ve been “electrocuted and set on fire at the same time” for months with just a single touch has a new home at “the U.K.’s deadliest garden.” 

The native Australian plant Dendrocnide moroides, more commonly referred to as the gympie-gympie plant and known as the “world’s most painful plant,” is now among dozens of other similar plants at Northumberland’s Alnwick Garden. The garden, which says it has roughly 100 “toxic, intoxicating and narcotic plants,” unveiled the new addition Tuesday. 

“Imagine being set on fire and electrocuted at the same time, got that image in your head? Well that is what an interaction is like with the native Australian plant Gympie Gympie,” the garden said in its announcement. “…Known as the ‘Australian Stinging Tree’ it is described as being the world’s most venomous plant with its nettle-like exterior and tiny brittle hair hairs packing a punch if touched.” 

According to the State Library of Queensland, the hairs that cover the plant “act like hypodermic needles.” 

“If touched, they inject a venom which causes excruciating pain that can last for days, even months,” they say. “…this plant has the dubious honor of being arguably the most painful plant in the world.”

And according to the U.K. garden, those hairs, known as trichomes, can stay in the skin for up to a year, re-triggering pain whenever the skin is touched, comes into contact with water or experiences a change in temperature. 

It’s so painful that one woman in Australia, Naomi Lewis, said it didn’t even come close to the pain of childbirth. She had slid into the plant after falling off her bike and down an embankment in Queensland, and had to stay in the hospital for a week to be treated for the pain. Even nine months after the incident, she said it still felt like someone was “snapping rubber bands” on her leg. 

“It was horrible, absolutely horrible,” she said earlier this year to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “I’ve had four kids – three caesareans and one natural. Childbirth, none of them even come close.” 

And all it takes is a moment for all that to happen. 

“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.” 

To make sure people don’t accidentally bump into it and get a firsthand experience of pain for themselves, the venomous plant is kept in a locked glass cage with a clear sign that says “do not touch.” 

“We are taking all precautions necessary to keep our gardeners safe,” the garden said. 

But the plant isn’t all-terrifying. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of Queensland said they may have found a pathway to target the toxins in the plant to help relieve pain rather than cause it. By unbinding the toxin to a specific protein called TMEM233, researchers say the toxin has “no effect.” 

“The persistent pain the stinging tree toxins cause gives us hope that we can convert these compounds into new painkillers or anaesthetics which have long-lasting effects,” researcher and professor Irina Vetter said. “We are excited to uncover a new pain pathway that has the potential for us to develop new pain treatments without the side effects or dependency issues associated with conventional pain relief.”