Joe Yates
This sounds like a passage straight out of the Bible - you know, Adam and Eve.
God says 'listen guys, do whatever the hell you want just don't be d***s and eat from my apple orchard please, I've spent ages on that', then the moment they go away Adam hears a snake giving out free samples from the tree... it goes something like that anyway.
Well over the course of evolution from whatever year that is claimed to be in the holy book, everything has drastically changed - but there's still a killer tree so maybe there was some truth to the tale.
It is the manchineel tree - and it can actually be found in coastal areas of southern Florida, as well as some Caribbean islands, Mexico and Central America.
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Fortunately for us at home, one medical profession accidentally ate an apple that fell from one of the trees - and lived to tell the tale as she described the horrifying symptoms that can lead to death.
Nicola Strickland is our guinea pig, and she wrote a paper which has been published on the National Library of Medicine back in the year 2000 detailing the horrific symptoms.
"Last year I went on holiday with a non-medical friend to the Caribbean island of Tobago. On the first morning we found one of those idyllic deserted beaches, exactly as described in the brochure: white sand, swaying palms, turquoise sea," she wrote.
"While searching for exotic shells and coral fragments, I saw some green fruits among the scattered coconuts and mangoes lying on the beach.
"They were round, the size of a tangerine, and had apparently fallen from a large tree with a silvery bole and oblique based leaves."
Strickland explained that she took a bite from it and persuaded her friend to do the same.
She continued: "Moments later we noticed a strange peppery feeling in our mouths, which gradually progressed to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat.
"The symptoms worsened over a couple of hours until we could barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump."
Adding: "Over the next eight hours our oral symptoms slowly began to subside, but our cervical lymph nodes became very tender and easily palpable.
"Recounting our experience to the locals elicited frank horror and incredulity, such was the fruit's poisonous reputation."
The medical professional went on to explain that 'the milky sap causes blistering, burns, and inflammation when in contact with the skin, mucous membranes, and conjunctivae', while 'smoke from the burning wood may injure the eyes'.
Before concluding the end result of what they experienced, Strickland detailed: "In our case swallowing just a tiny amount of the juice from the fruit had clearly resulted in oral and oesophageal ulceration and severe oedema.
"Drainage of the toxin to regional lymph nodes had presumably caused the subsequent cervical pain."