The manchineel tree, Hippomane mancinella, is found in southern Florida and on down into the northern part of South America. And like cigarettes, it also comes with warning signs letting the unwary know that it is extremely toxic.
The tree is a flowering member of the large and diverse spurge family. Some members of this family are well-known, such as the familiar Christmas poinsettias or the Crown of Thorns plants. The indigenous people the Spanish encountered knew how toxic the manchineel tree was because they used its sap to poison their arrowheads and darts.
Perhaps the Spanish found out their horses went mad after eating the sweet-smelling little apples, or perhaps they found out that even standing under the tree in a rainstorm could be hazardous. But regardless of the source of their information, the Spanish name persists today, manzanilla de la Muerte, “little apple of death.”
The manchineel is grown as a windbreak in many parts of the Caribbean and is quite often about the size of large shrubs, although the trees can reach 50 feet in height. The do very well in sandy soils and mangrove swamps in these areas. The trees are really labeled with warning signs, with many in south Florida and the Cayman Islands saying, ““Warning: all parts of manchineel are extremely poisonous,” or words to that effect.
Every part of the tree is toxic
All parts of the manchineel are toxic, and most of the toxins have been identified. The milky-white sap contains phorbol and other skin irritants. These chemicals can cause a form of extreme dermatitis. The sap was used on arrowheads and poison darts. Even standing under the tree when it rains can be dangerous.
Raindrops falling through the leaves get little bits of sap adhering to them, and when the raindrops hit the skin, blisters will form. The sap has been known to damage the paint on cars. And you do not want to burn the trees because the smoke will damage the eyes and skin, causing ocular damage and corneal irritation or bulbous dermatitis to exposed skin surfaces.
Believe it or not, but no deaths have been documented from eating the fruit, although the experience is not a pleasant one. Radiologist Nicola Strickland authored a 2000 British Medical Journal article about eating manchineel “beach apples” with a friend while on holiday on the Caribbean island of Tobago.
She describes the fruit she found on the beach as being the size of a tangerine and pleasantly sweet to the taste. It didn’t take but a few moments before she and her friend noticed a peppery feeling in their mouths. This progressed to a burning, tearing sensation in the mouth that soon led to the feeling their throats were closing up.
,The excruciating pain and inability to swallow lasted nearly eight hours and was partly eased by drinking a pina colada, although Nicola admits it was really the milk in the alcoholic beverage that helped the most. In the article, she says, “n our case swallowing just a tiny amount of the juice from the fruit had clearly resulted in oral and esophageal ulceration and severe edema. Drainage of the toxin to regional lymph nodes had presumably caused the subsequent cervical pain.”
Well, let’s take the “no documented” cases of death back. According to the literature, Ponce de Leon is probably the first and most well-known case of the manchineel being responsible for the death of someone. He led an expedition into Florida in 1513, hoping to colonize the new land.
He returned eight years later and his party was met with resistance from Calusa warriors. He was reportedly struck in the thigh with a manchineel poison-tipped arrow during the 1521 battle. Taken back to Cuba, he later died from his wound. Did the poison from the sap of the manchineel kill him? Probably not. It is far more likely infection played a huge role, but the tale adds to the intrigue.
Atlas Obscura relates reported stories of shipwrecked sailors eating the fruits, and rather than having violent deaths, instead ended up with inflammation and blistering of their mouths. And for those foolhardy enough to actually swallow the fruit, there have been reports of intense abdominal pain and cramping.
With the plant being so toxic, it has been studied to see where exactly it belongs in the evolutionary ladder. “There really isn’t an evolutionary answer to its being toxic, other than to just say it’s a biological mistake because it certainly doesn’t gain anything by being toxic to humans,” says Roger Hammer, a naturalist, and botanist who has written many books about the flora of Florida.
