I touched the ‘world’s most dangerous plant’ to see if it was really that bad – here’s what it got on the pain scale
A MAN who wanted to know how painful one of the world’s most dangerous plants really is decided to take the plunge and touch one.
The gympie-gympie plant, also known as Dendrocnide moroides, is usually only found in Australia and Indonesia but has recently been spotted in the UK.
The plant is currently being stored under lock and key in the Alnwick Garden’s Poison Garden.
John Knox, lead tour guide at the Poison Garden, told the BBC: “There’s little hairs on it, so if you brush past it and there’s any skin contact, the hairs from the plant grow under the skin, break off and inject venom – which has been described as being electrocuted and set on fire at the same time.”
Naturally, the plant is pretty nasty stuff, so not something you should seek out or mess with.
But one man decided to take the risk to see if he could handle the dreaded pain.
The Florida-based YouTuber, who goes by The Backyard Scientist, ordered the plant and grew it for six months before conducting the experiment.
He touched it with one of his friends to see what all the fuss is about – and the pain immediately set in.
“The leaves on this plant are covered in thousands of silica hairs that break off and inject a neurotoxin like a syringe.
“They activate pain receptors but prevent them from turning off too,” he explained.
His friend went first, and instantly felt a tight, burning sensation, like he’d just been stung by a bee.
Meanwhile, the YouTuber said the pain was more like “hand sanitiser in an open wound.”
And despite trying some hacks to make the pain go away, the stings were still burning for both of them.
Washing their arms, where they were both stung, with water made the pain even worse, as did putting something cold over them.
“Overall I would give gympie-gympie an eight out of 10 on the pain scale,” he said.
“The best comparison is that each stinger feels like afire ant sting, by the end of the day I would say the pain is a one or a two, and by the next morning the pain was pretty much non-existent, unless you got it wet,” he added.
In fact, the sting continued to be sensitive to water and cold temperatures for the next week.