With a sting so potent it’s been known to prompt suicidal thoughts, one of the “most dangerous plants” in the world has landed in the UK. It’s called Gympie-Gympie.
The Gympie-Gympie sting is so strong that some people have compared it to being both “electrocuted” and on fire at the same time.
One daring Brit even chose to cultivate the terrible plant in his own house, even though it is typically maintained in botanical gardens.
However, the poisonous Gympie-Gympie has since relocated to Alnwick Garden’s Poison Garden, where it is being locked and guarded.
Gympie-Gympie
The plant is a member of the nettle family Urticaceae and is typically found in the rainforests of Australia and Indonesia.
The plant’s tiny, hair-like needles cause a burning feeling to spread through the sufferer, according to John Knox, the Poison Garden’s lead tour guide. The pain then gets worse over the next 20 to 30 minutes and can last for weeks or months.
Knox compared the experience to “being electrocuted and set on fire at the same time” and said that this can happen even if you only briefly brush near it.
People have also claimed being thrown into having their limbs swell up, getting enormous red rashes, and being unable to sleep from the excruciating discomfort.
Even one suicide has occurred, with the victim reportedly shooting himself following a grueling encounter with the bush.
Poison Garden
Around 100 ‘toxic, intoxicating, and narcotic plants’, including strychnine and giant hogweed, are found in the Northumberland town of Alnwick’s Poison Garden.
Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland, who rose to nobility after the untimely death of her husband’s brother, designed a portion of the larger Alnwick Garden.
On the garden’s website, it is stated that guests are not permitted to smell, touch, or taste any of the plants there and that people ‘sometimes faint from inhaling deadly vapors’ while wandering about.
Visitors are only permitted inside on guided excursions, and the boundaries are kept behind black iron gates bearing the warnings “THESE PLANTS WILL KILL YOU” and two skulls and crossbones.
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