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Deadly☠️ To avoid

☠️ Strophanthus (arrow poison liana)

Strophanthus gratus · Apocynaceae

🌍 Africa
🧠 To remember it"Pink flower with twisted filaments, poison that stops the heart" — strophanthus tipped African hunting arrows long before firearms arrived.
Strophanthus (arrow poison liana) — Strophanthus gratus

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

Climbing liana or shrub found in the forests and wooded savannas of West and Central Africa. Like most Apocynaceae, it secretes a milky sap. It features pink tubular flowers with five lobes extended by long twisted filaments, and spindle-shaped seeds topped with a long silky tuft. Its seeds contain ouabain, one of Africa's most potent traditional arrow poisons.

  1. climbing liana or shrub with white milky sap
  2. pink or cream-white tubular flowers with five lobes extended by highly distinctive long twisted filaments
  3. fruits growing in pairs of long, slender pods that split open at maturity
  4. spindle-shaped seeds topped with a long, feathery silky tuft, dispersed by the wind
Sizeclimbing liana or shrub 2-10 m long depending on the support
Floweringhighly recognizable pink flowers with twisted filaments, fruits in long paired pods
Habitatforest edges and wooded savannas of West and Central Africa, from Senegal to the Democratic Republic of the Congo

⚠️ Not to be confused with

No dangerous food confusion specifically documented (—)as a general rule, all lianas with milky sap in the Apocynaceae family must be treated as potentially toxic

To tell them apart: the pink flowers with long twisted filaments and the seeds with a silky tuft are distinctive enough features to avoid any confusion; the general safety rule remains to never handle or harvest an unknown liana with milky sap in tropical Africa

☠️ What kills

nomOuabain (cardiac glycoside), concentrated in the seeds
dose letale estimeeabout 1 mg of ouabain can be fatal via injection; the main risk in a survival context is contact with poisoned arrows or traditional preparations, accidental ingestion of seeds being rarer (EN Wikipedia, approx)
delairapid via the bloodstream (historical use as an arrow poison), more variable via ingestion
symptomesouabain blocks the sodium-potassium pump in cardiac cells, causing severe heart rhythm disturbances that can lead to cardiac arrest
antidoteno field antidote; immediate emergency hospital cardiology care is essential
morts documenteesyes, historically documented as an effective arrow poison against large game (except elephants and hippos) by several West and Central African peoples, reported as early as Livingstone's 19th-century explorations

First steps : If injured by an arrow or a tool suspected of being coated with a Strophanthus-based traditional preparation, evacuate for absolute medical emergency care: cardiac risk threatens life within hours. Never attempt to suck or drain a wound of this type.

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.