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What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

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Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#31

Post by DoreenMichele »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #25
DoreenMichele wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the upside, it's edible, not deadly. (Not that Americans seem to eat it.) At least not deadly to humans. Not sure what impact it's having on, say, other plant species in The South.

I grew up in the south and it's definitely legendary, but my sense is more that it's everywhere but more annoying than devastating. It needs a ton of sunlight which limits it some, but also means it grows along the edges of forests by roads, where it's extremely visible. Gives the impression that it's taking over everything but at least when I still lived there it wasn't. It is certainly out of control though, in the…

That sounds about right. I just haven't actually studied the issue.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#32

Post by moron4hire »

llamaLord wrote: post #7

There's an urban legend in Australia about a bloke that went camping once, had to take a shit in the bush, and didn't have any dunny-role. Poor guy grabbed a handful of Gympie-gympie that was on the ground next to him and proceeded to wipe his ass with it. Legend says he ended up topping himself a few hours later to escape the pain. Whether it's true or not... Fuck only knows. We do like making shit up... Especially…

We have the same urban legend in the US about poison ivy, but I actually knew a kid who made the mistake.

Poison ivy is certainly nowhere near this description of gympie-gympie, but the persistent itch is certainly unrelenting enough to cause pretty severe distress. I got a small touch of it on my forearm one time. Didn't even know I had brushed up against the plant, so I didn't perform the recommended clean up. Just from absent mindedly scratching, I ended up spreading the oil over almost my entire forearm and onto my leg. I barely slept for two weeks.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#33

Post by xipho »

I did not fall, but collecting insects once in the rainforest I brushed my pant-leg against this. Couldn't understand the pain. Was dumb and naive to not read the local park brochure when we came in, only when we left after the first day of work. When I went back to collect the traps I realized I had placed them all along a huge fallen tree, with this plant running right beside it. I was incredibly lucky. Stung for around 4 days IIRC, and this was super minor contact from what I could tell. I had been hyper aware of snakes etc., and well covered for other biting insects, but my "adventure" pants seemed just a little too thin for coverage.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#34

Post by salgernon »

llamaLord wrote: post #8
coldcode wrote: post #6

Stories like this make me wonder why anyone lives in Australia, since virtually everything seems to want to kill you. Or perhaps Aussies are tougher than the rest of us.

To be fair... There are at least... 3... Animals here that aren't explicitly trying to kill us. It's really not that bad. Just don't go into the warm water or the box jellyfish will get you. Keep an eye out for Sting-rays too... Nobody wants to go out like old-mate Steve. Oh and don't go into the cold water either, blue-ringed octopus... Nasty buggers. Rivers too... Not a great idea... Crocks are pretty nippy when th…

I love Terry Pratchett’s description of XXXX - the Australian analogue in his book “The Last Continent”. While a book on deadly native animals would encompass several volumes, the “book” of safe animals was a single page that listed “some of the sheep.”

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#35

Post by techdragon »

llamaLord wrote: post #14
ndsipa_pomu wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed out the deadly drop-bears

And the Combat-Emu https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary

never heard it called a combat emu…

But also, these guys are like… A+ proof of dinosaur’s evolution into birds… you can pretty much picture Cassowaries in place of the raptors in Jurassic park…

Some extra Cassowary info.

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2019...

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/how-da...

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#36

Post by John23832 »

llamaLord wrote: post #7

There's an urban legend in Australia about a bloke that went camping once, had to take a shit in the bush, and didn't have any dunny-role. Poor guy grabbed a handful of Gympie-gympie that was on the ground next to him and proceeded to wipe his ass with it. Legend says he ended up topping himself a few hours later to escape the pain. Whether it's true or not... Fuck only knows. We do like making shit up... Especially…

As a yank, it's always been believed that everything in Aussieland wants to either kill you or make life supremely uncomfortable.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#38

Post by jonnycomputer »

bell-cot wrote: post #2

Geezer reaction: At some point, stories like this became a blur of "there actually is a Real World out there, and Bad Things can happen to you there, and you can't just drink a Health Potion or Respawn at your last Save Point to get out of it!". (Admitting that such stories probably do help educate the kiddies, the noobs, etc.)

It's rogue-like all the way down.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#39

Post by nemo44x »

photochemsyn wrote: post #23

Recent research (2020) revealed these plants containt a potent protein neurotoxin: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abb8828 > "We show here that the venoms of Australian Dendrocnide species contain heretofore unknown pain-inducing peptides that potently activate mouse sensory neurons and delay inactivation of voltage-gated sodium channels. These neurotoxins localize specifically to the stinging hairs and ar…

Won't be long for this to be weaponized. Being able to chemically turn it on and off sounds like a "perfect" torture device that doesn't leave forensic evidence behind.

Re: What it’s like to fall into the deadly Australian plant, gympie-gympie

#40

Post by John23832 »

It's crazy that the evolution in isolation caused literally everything in Australia to become made for killing everything not from Australia.

You would think that independent evolution would cause some benign evolution as well. Nope. Australia went the "kill everything" route.

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