Gimpy Gimpy Suicide Plant Mystery: Can A Plant Really Make People Commit Suicides?

Australia is home to a wide variety of animals and diverse habitats some beautiful, some cuddly, and some super-deadly. In terms of a formidable reputation, plants are no exception. Wildly thriving in Queensland, Australia is a humble-looking tree the Gympie-Gympie (Dendrocnide macrolides). Don’t let its humorous name, frizzy-leafed and innocuous appearance fool you; this stinging tree can leave you in agonizing pain for months, if not for years.

Being burned by hot scorching acid and a sensation of electric shocks trickling down your spine that’s what it can feel like when you experience this stinger, and surprisingly, you don’t even need to touch it. An extremely fine corsage of poisonous silica needles filled with potent neurotoxin coats the entire plant. And if this plant couldn’t get any more intense, the things shed like a feline in the summertime, so it’s dangerously easy to get stung by a thousand of these stingers without ever touching them.