Modern Day Event The Gympie Gympie aka Suicide Plant.

[Chism]

Watching a recent documentary they mentioned this rather medium sized what looks like a normal plant as being the most painful experience you will ever encounter as it has microscopic hairs that are just excruciating if they penetrate your skin.



I had never heard of this plant and it is a modern day mystery as to how we are so amazingly affected by this rare plant that grows in small areas of the NE of the country around QLD and Northern NSW, and is not found anywhere else in the world.

"Like being burned by hot acid and electrocuted at the same time." That's botanist Marina Hurley on what it feels like to touch the gympie gympie. Not that you have to touch it. An extremely fine fuzz of poisonous needles coats the entire plant, and better yet, the things shed like a cat in the summertime. So it's disturbingly easy to get stung just by standing near them.


There's no shortage of horror stories about the gympie gympie. One ex-serviceman, Cyril Bromley, fell into one of the plants during WWII training exercises, and he ended up strapped to a hospital bed, "as mad as a cut snake." Bromley also told a story of an officer who unknowingly used a leaf as toilet paper. He ended up shooting himself. Botanist Ernie Rider was whacked in the face, arm, and chest in 1963, and it wasn't until 1965 that he was finally free of the pain.

https://curiosity.com/topics/the-suicide-plant-has-the-most-painful-stingers-in-the-world-curiosity/




Just crazy stuff and has anyone here came into contact with these beasts? We would have a heap of members from that area of Australia on here you would think!

The more i read about this plant and the people that have come into contact with them the more glad i am that i am in Melbourne!

Scientists are also at a loss as to how we are so vulnerable to them and why they are so remote regarding their habitat on the world stage regarding the amount of forest that the globe has. Seems QLD and Northern NSW are the only lucky or not so lucky places on Earth that this plant grows in.

 

[Wallaby]

I read up a bit more about this plant - holy crap, it sounds frightening.

But......

"The fruit is edible if the stinging hairs that cover it are removed ". Who the f*********** f********** was brave enough to try that???!!!???

 

[Werewolf]

Snakes, spiders, sharks, crocodiles, jellyfish, stingrays, cassowaries and now killer plants. This country is full of hazards!

 

[Chism]

I read up a bit more about this plant - holy crap, it sounds frightening.

But......

"The fruit is edible if the stinging hairs that cover it are removed ". Who the f*********** f********** was brave enough to try that???!!!???

Can hardly blame the guy that took a dump close to the plant thinking that nice big leaf would serve as great toilet paper....

Watching the reactions to a single microscopic bard that goes into your finger you can hardly blame the guy for shooting himself that wiped his arse with the leaf and if the barbs are not removed the pain will never end. Tweezers don't work and only hair waxing type procedures are used to extract them and even then if one breaks off you are ****ed!

 

[AFLOnline]

How have I never heard of this

Snakes, spiders, sharks, crocodiles, jellyfish, stingrays, cassowaries and now killer plants. This country is full of hazards!

Don't forget the blue ringed octopus!

 

[Mofra]

How have I never heard of this

Don't forget the blue ringed octopus!

Rip tides, coneshells, stonefish.... even with this amazing plant the land is still the safe bit!

 

[Wallaby]

Yeah - the land is the safe bit.

Most Poisonous Ant in the world - Australian.
https://www.toptenreviews.com/home/articles/the-worlds-most-dangerous-ants/

Most poisonous spider in the world - Australian. (Redback is #2).
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-venomous-spider

Most poisonous snake in the world. Australian.
http://listverse.com/2011/03/30/top-10-most-venomous-snakes/ - we have 5 of the Top 10.
(Actually there is a more deadly snake than a taipan. It's a sea snake. It's found off the coast of ......................... Australia).

And when the land floods (to get rid of the ants, snakes and spiders) - we get crocs in the main street!
https://www.news.com.au/national/qu...s/news-story/eb91344fdeace612153260f8ccf90dd2

We're f****ed.

 

[Craven Morehead]

Yeah, I lease a bit of country over Gympie way, (I am an hour and half west), and the owner warned me about it when mustering. He has it flagged with tape.
He related a story of a dozer driver, (open cabin), pushing up scrub and somehow leaves made their way in to him. Only copped it on the arm, but apparently he was in a very, very bad way.
I stay well clear of it when I'm over there.

 

[Mofra]

Yeah, I lease a bit of country over Gympie way, (I am an hour and half west), and the owner warned me about it when mustering. He has it flagged with tape.
He related a story of a dozer driver, (open cabin), pushing up scrub and somehow leaves made their way in to him. Only copped it on the arm, but apparently he was in a very, very bad way.
I stay well clear of it when I'm over there.

As an aside, does it grow much or overflow from the 'tape' boundary and spread?
Just wondering if you have to get someone in some kind of hazmat suit type arrangement to go and check on it once per year.

 

[Craven Morehead]

As an aside, does it grow much or overflow from the 'tape' boundary and spread?
Just wondering if you have to get someone in some kind of hazmat suit type arrangement to go and check on it once per year.

I don't know too much about it all.
The block that I lease is just over 300 acres and has a pocket of about 40 acres of protected rainforest that intrudes from a National Park which the cattle basically use for shelter. He took me in on horseback to show me the two patches, scattered plants covering maybe 50-60sqm each. So I don't think it is that invasive or prolific at all.
He wouldn't go closer than 10 metres from each patch and the horses got very jumpy there as well. They knew.

 

[Genghis Tron]

Haha that video reminds me of a mates dad showing of and slapping a leaf.

That camping trip was cut short.