Dendrocnide moroides, also known as the
stinging bush,
gympie stinger,
mulberry-leaved stinger,
gimpi gimpi,
gympie,[sup]
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stinger or
moonlighter, is a large shrub native to rainforest areas in north half of eastern Australia, the Moluccas and Indonesia. It is best known for stinging hairs which cover the whole plant and deliver a potent
neurotoxin when touched. It is the most toxic of the Australian species of stinging trees. The fruit is edible if the stinging hairs that cover it are removed.[sup]
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D. moroides usually grows as a single-stemmed plant reaching 1–3 metres in height. It has large, heart-shaped leaves about 12–22 cm long and 11–18 cm wide, with finely toothed margins.
Contact with the leaves or twigs causes the hollow, silica-tipped hairs to penetrate the skin. The sting causes an extremely painful stinging sensation which can last for days, weeks, or months, and the injured area becomes covered with small, red spots joining together to form a red, swollen mass. The sting is potent enough to kill humans, dogs, and horses, and is infamously agonizing. Stories tell of horses jumping off cliffs after being stung, and supposedly one Australian officer shot himself to escape the pain of a sting.One man who was slapped in the face and torso with the foliage said, "For two or three days the pain was almost unbearable; I couldn't work or sleep, then it was pretty bad pain for another fortnight or so. The stinging persisted for two years and recurred every time I had a cold shower. ... There's nothing to rival it; it's ten times worse than anything else."
However, the sting does not stop several small marsupial species, including the
red-legged pademelon, insects and birds from eating the leaves. Moroidin, a
bicyclic octapeptide containing an unusual C-N linkage between
tryptophan and
histidine, was first isolated from the leaves and stalks of
Dendrocnide moroides, and subsequently shown to be the principal compound responsible for the long duration of the stings.
There has been anecdotal evidence of some plants having no sting, but still possessing the hairs, suggesting a chemical change to the toxin.