Because they can’t move and as such can’t sneak up on you, many people never really think of trees as being dangerous.
As it turns out though, beyond the occasional tree that kills a person by falling on them, there are trees out there so deadly, the next time you walk through a forest, you’ll think twice about being next to one of these.
They have all kinds of ways of making you suffer, so you better watch your step the next time you’re next to a tree you’re not familiar with. Join us as we countdown 15 most dangerous trees you should never touch.
SHIPWORM IN THE TREE Number 15 on our list is the Shipworm in the tree. The first question to ask here isn’t how the shipworm manages to bore into wood and in such numbers that it can threaten national economies, for that matter but how the hell a marine creature could evolve to rely on a terrestrial material in the first place.
Shipworms subsisting on trees that happen to wash out to sea is a bit like you trying to survive solely on dead things that wash ashore. The shipworm’s life cycle begins as a larva that settles onto wood, be it a mangrove root or pier or ship.
It begins drilling a tiny hole into the wood, either by releasing enzymes to break down the tissue or by rasping away with its shell, or a combination of the two methods.
The animal has a very strong foot, as most bivalves and gastropods and it uses it like a suck, and moves the shell sideways and uses it as a rasp and file device.
But it’s safe to say that mucousy flesh does not get along well with the abrasiveness of wood, so this leaves the shipworm with a problem: As it grows and elongates and continues to bore deeper into the wood, the shipworm risks stripping its own delicate flesh away.
To avoid this, it excretes a calcareous lining the same calcium carbonate material that makes up its shell along its worm-like body.
Pull a shipworm out of some wood and it’ll leave the calcareous tube behind. It’s safe to say that they’re indigestible for humans, but not for the shipworm.
It can digest wood just fine with the help of some very special symbiotic bacteria. But here’s the strange thing: That bacteria don’t live in the shipworm’s gut. Instead, it lives in the gills and produces enzymes that make their way to the gut, where they break down the wood’s cellulose into sugars.
Plenty of creatures use bacteria like this to digest weird foods, but the shipworm is alone in storing the microbes outside of its digestive system.
A diet of wood, though, leaves the shipworm wanting for protein. So out of that tiny hole it first bored when it was a larva, the shipworm extends fanlike structures that it uses to catch plankton floating by.
MACHINEEL TREE Number 14 on our list is the Manchineel Tree. The Manchineel tree may be endangered, but so is anyone who messes with it.
That’s because this rare tropical plant, which offers deceptively sweet fruit, is one of the most poisonous trees on Earth.
Manchineels are notorious in their native habitats, the sandy soils and mangroves of South Florida, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America.
Many are labeled with warning signs. But aside from poisoning the occasional conquistador, tourist and literary character, manchineel is relatively obscure considering it holds the world record for most dangerous tree.
The fruits are the most obvious threat, earning manchineel the name “manzanita de la muerte”, or “little apple of death,” from Spanish conquistadors.
Resembling a small green crab-apple about 1 to 2 inches wide, the sweet-smelling fruits can cause hours of agony and potentially death with a single bite.
Poison apples are just the beginning, though. Every part of a manchineel is toxic, and interaction with and ingestion of any part of this tree may be lethal.
That includes bark, leaves and the milky sap, one drop of which can scorch the skin of shade-seeking beachgoers.
Even without touching the tree itself, people have been burned by the thick, caustic sap as rain washes it off branches overhead.
Eating the fruit usually causes abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding and digestive tract damage. Death is widely considered a risk, but mortality data for ingesting the manchineel fruit informally known as a “beach apple” are scarce.
And aside from the short-term danger, some manchineel compounds may be co-carcinogenic, promoting the growth of benign and malignant tumors.
