Featured Image Credit: The Alnwick Garden
Topics: Mental Health, Nature, News, Weird, UK News
Chelsea Connor
Topics: Mental Health, Nature, News, Weird, UK News
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
The ‘most dangerous plant in the world’ that ‘can cause suicidal thoughts’ has made its way over to the UK.
The’ Gympie- Gympie plant’ is usually found in Australia’s and Indonesian rainforests, and is known to be so potent its sting is likened to ‘being electrocuted and being on fire at the same time’.
If that doesn't sound bad enough, it apparently induces so much pain it can even cause ‘suicidal thoughts.’
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The terror plant is usually kept in botanical gardens, and is now kept under lock and key in Alnwick Garden's Poison Garden, in Northumbria, UK, where it has been kept safely away from members of the public.
The first instance of the plant causing havoc happened back in 1866, when a road surveyor’s horse was stung by the agonising plant, which sent the horse into complete madness before dying ‘just two hours later.’
This plant has also reportedly induced at least one suicide, after a man shot himself after brushing against the shrubbery.
According to the lead tour guide at the Poison Garden, the plant has ‘tiny needles’ on its edges which ‘sends burning sensations throughout the victim’.
The plant causes paralysing pain for the next 20-30 minutes, with pain continuing for months following the sting.
The expert compared it to ‘being electrocuted and set on fire at the same time’, and has said that even a slight brush against it can cause agony.
The one-of-a-kind greenery can cause red rashes and even ‘limbs to swell up’, as well as leaving people unable to sleep due to the unbearable pain. Despite these nightmare side effects, the experts felt confident enough to put the plant on display at Alnwick, which holds around ‘100 toxic plants.’
Part of the larger Alnwick Garden is the creation of Jane Percy, the Duchess of Northumberland, who became a member of nobility when her husband’s brother suddenly died.
With the unexpected title came the magnificent Alnwick Castle – which many of you might recognise from the Harry Potter films – and its grounds, with Percy’s husband tasking her with bringing new life into the gardens.
Percy told Smithsonian Magazine, which refers to the garden as the ‘world’s deadliest': "I think he thought, 'That will keep her quiet, she’ll just plant a few roses and that’ll be it.'”
"I thought, 'This is a way to interest children,'" she continued.
"Children don’t care that aspirin comes from a bark of a tree. What’s really interesting is to know how a plant kills you, and how the patient dies, and what you feel like before you die."
Percy added: “What’s extraordinary about the plants is that it’s the most common ones that people don’t know are killers.”