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Deadly☠️ To avoid

☠️ Strychnine tree (nux vomica)

Strychnos nux-vomica · Loganiacées

🌴 Tropical
🧠 To remember it“Round, orange fruit in the jungle: never an orange” — the strychnine tree mimics the most mundane fruit in the world to hide the most violent poison.
Strychnine tree (nux vomica) — Strychnos nux-vomica

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

A small hardwood tree of the dry and humid forests of South and Southeast Asia. Its round, smooth fruit, bright orange when ripe, strongly resembles a small orange—a formidable visual trap since its seeds contain strychnine, one of the most potent plant poisons known.

  1. opposite, oval leaves with 3-5 prominent main veins starting from the base (characteristic fan-like venation)
  2. round, smooth fruit with a hard rind, bright orange when ripe, the size of a small orange or apple
  3. 5 flat, button-shaped seeds covered in a fine, silky grey down, arranged around the central pulp
  4. smooth, grayish bark, hard and dense wood
Size8-15 m
Floweringsmall greenish-white flowers in cymes, fruits ripening several months later
Habitatdry forests and clearings of South and Southeast Asia, up to northern Australia; also present in certain tropical forests of Africa for related species of the same genus

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Orange or other citrus fruit fallen on the ground (Citrus spp.)the round, smooth, bright orange fruit of the strychnine tree is regularly confused with a small orange by children or people unfamiliar with the species, carrying a deadly risk if the seeds are chewed

To tell them apart: cut the fruit open: the pulp of the strychnine tree is gelatinous and bitter, with 5 large flat seeds covered in silky down clearly visible, whereas an orange has juicy segmented pulp with nothing comparable; the rind of the strychnine tree is smooth and hard, not pebbled like that of a citrus

☠️ What kills

nomStrychnine and brucine (convulsant alkaloids), concentrated in the seeds
dose letale estimeea few tens of milligrams of pure strychnine are enough to kill an adult; a single chewed and swallowed seed can be fatal (ScienceDirect Topics, approx, no standardized human dose for the whole seed)
delai15 to 30 minutes after ingestion
symptomesviolent, generalized muscle convulsions triggered by the slightest stimulus (noise, light, touch), arching rigidity (opisthotonos), asphyxiation due to spasms of respiratory muscles, conscious awareness maintained until the end, making the agony particularly agonizing
antidoteno specific antidote; emergency symptomatic treatment (sedation, seizure control, respiratory support)
morts documenteesyes — strychnine extracted from this species long served as a rat poison and was historically used as a criminal poison before being widely banned from over-the-counter sale

First steps : Call emergency services or a poison control center immediately upon the slightest ingestion, even without apparent symptoms. Minimize all stimulation (noise, light, handling) that could trigger convulsions. Do not induce vomiting. Emergency medical transport is imperative.

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.