Skip to content

Your account

With an account, your progress (modules read, XP, badges, cards, notebook, pack, challenges) follows you on every device. Without one, it stays in this browser.

or
Toxic☠️ To avoid

🚫 Australian strychnine tree

Strychnos psilosperma · Loganiaceae

🦘 Australia
🧠 To remember it“Red turning to black, keep off your snack” — the strychnine tree berry ends up black when ripe, unlike the edible red fruits you find around it in the rainforest.
Australian strychnine tree — Strychnos psilosperma

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Shrub or small tree reaching up to 18 m, with gray bark and dense foliage of pointed, glossy leaves. Small fragrant white flowers appear during the warm season, followed by berries that turn from orange to red, then blacken at maturity. All parts of the plant contain toxic alkaloids related to strychnine.

  1. gray bark, dense canopy of pointed, glossy leaves forming thick cover
  2. small fragrant white flowers in the warm season
  3. berries changing color: orange then red, blackening when fully mature
  4. found in semi-deciduous vine thickets and mixed eucalyptus forests, often alongside hoop pine
Sizeup to 18 m
Floweringwarm season, berries ripening afterward
Habitatsemi-deciduous vine thickets and mixed eucalyptus forests, from the Clarence River (New South Wales) up to Cape York (far north Queensland)

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Riberry (small-leaved lilly pilly) (Syzygium luehmannii)none for the riberry, edible

To tell them apart: the strychnine tree berry blackens at full maturity and its foliage is more oval and leathery, whereas the riberry fruit remains bright red and pear-shaped, with lanceolate, glossy foliage and pinkish-red young shoots

☠️ What kills

nomStrychnine-type indole alkaloids, present in all parts of the plant
dose letale estimeenot precisely quantified for this species in the consulted sources; any ingestion must be treated as a medical emergency
delaivariable depending on the part and quantity ingested
symptomesstrychnine-type alkaloids classically cause violent muscle spasms and neuromuscular hyperexcitability; contact a poison control center in case of suspected ingestion
antidoteno specific antidote; emergency symptomatic hospital care
morts documenteesnot precisely quantified for this species in the consulted sources, but the Strychnos genus is well known for its toxicity due to strychnine-type alkaloids

First steps : Call a poison control center immediately in case of ingestion, even partial. Do not induce vomiting without medical advice. Keep a sample of the plant for identification by emergency services.

💊 Healing with it

aucun usage traditionnel documenté dans les sources consultées ; la plante entière est classée toxique

Level of evidence : traditional use

⚠️ all parts of the plant are toxic; never consume the berries, even when dark and ripe, despite a distant resemblance to edible rainforest fruits

Sources (2)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.