The name "manchineel" (sometimes spelled "manchioneel" or "manchineal"), as well as the specific epithet mancinella, are from Spanish manzanilla ("little apple"), from the superficial resemblance of its fruit and leaves to those of an apple tree. It is also called beach apple.[5]
A present-day Spanish name is manzanilla de la muerte, "little apple of death". This refers to the fact that manchineel is one of the most toxic trees in the world: it has milky-white sap that contains numerous toxins and can cause blistering. The sap is present in every part of the tree—bark, leaves, and fruit.[5][6]
Description
Hippomane mancinella grows up to 15 metres (49 feet) tall. It has reddish-grayish bark, small greenish-yellow flowers, and shiny green leaves. The leaves are simple, alternate, very finely serrated or toothed, and 5–10 centimetres (2–4 inches) long.[7]
Spikes of small greenish flowers are followed by fruits, which are similar in appearance to an apple, are green or greenish-yellow when ripe. The fruit is poisonous, as is every other part of the tree.[7]
The manchineel tree can be found on coastal beaches and in brackish swamps, where it grows among mangroves. It provides excellent natural windbreaks and its roots stabilize the sand, thus reducing beach erosion.[6]
Botanical study, captioned "The Manzanilla Tree taken at Bocca chica to show / the men that they might neither cut nor sleep near it, a bow was pin'd at the top of every Sergeant's tent, in order to make the soldiers / acquainted with and to avoid it... F.M: J.G: (?) March the 12th 1741" – a reference to Vice Admiral Edward Vernon's invasion fleet, before his defeat at the Battle of Cartagena de Indias
Standing beneath the tree during rain will cause blistering of the skin from mere contact with this liquid: even a small drop of rain with the sap in it will cause the skin to blister. Burning the tree may cause ocular injuries if the smoke reaches the eyes.[12] Contact with its milky sap (latex) produces bullous dermatitis, acute keratoconjunctivitis and possibly large corneal epithelial defects.[13]
Although the fruit is potentially fatal if eaten, no such occurrences have been reported in the modern literature.[14] Ingestion can produce severe gastroenteritis with bleeding, shock, and bacterial superinfection, as well as the potential for airway compromise due to edema.[15]
When ingested, the fruit is reportedly "pleasantly sweet" at first, with a subsequent "strange peppery feeling ... gradually progress[ing] to a burning, tearing sensation and tightness of the throat." Symptoms continue to worsen until the patient can "barely swallow solid food because of the excruciating pain and the feeling of a huge obstructing pharyngeal lump."[5]
In some parts of its range, many trees carry a warning sign – for example on Curaçao – while others are marked with a red "X" on the trunk to indicate danger. In the French Antilles the trees are often marked with a painted red band roughly 1 metre (3 ft) above the ground.[16]
Although the plant is toxic to many birds and other animals, the black-spined iguana (Ctenosaura similis) is known to eat the fruit and even live among the limbs of the tree.[10]
The tree contains 12-deoxy-5-hydroxyphorbol-6-gamma-7-alpha-oxide, hippomanins, mancinellin, and sapogenin. Phloracetophenone-2,4-dimethylether is present in the leaves, while the fruits possess physostigmine.[17]
Despite the inherent dangers associated with handling it, the tree has been used as a source of wood by Caribbean furniture makers for centuries. It must be cut and left to dry in the sun to dry the sap.[6] To avoid dangerous contact with the poisonous parts, the tree may be burnt at the base to fell it.[20]
Culture
Manchineel trees are commonly signposted as dangerous.
William Ellis, ship's surgeon for James Cook on his final voyage, wrote:
On the fourth, a party of men were sent to cut wood, as the island apparently afforded plenty of that article; amongst other trees they unluckily cut down several of the manchineel, the juice of which getting into their eyes, rendered them blind for several days.[21]
Alexandre Exquemelin wrote in The Buccaneers of America of his experience with the "tree called mancanilla, or dwarf-apple-tree" when in Hispaniola:
One day being hugely tormented with mosquitoes or gnats, and as yet unacquainted with the nature of this tree, I cut a branch thereof, to serve me instead of a fan, but all my face swelled the next day and filled with blisters, as if it were burnt to such a degree that I was blind for three days.[22]
Nicholas Cresswell, in his journal entry for Friday, September 16, 1774, mentions:
The Mangeneel Apple has the smell and appearance of an English Apple, but small, grows on large trees, generally along the Seashore. They are rank poison. I am told that one apple is sufficient to kill 20 people. This poison is of such a malignant nature that a single drop of rain or dew that falls from the tree upon your skin will immediately raise a blister. Neither Fruit or Wood is of any use, that I can learn.[23]
In Giacomo Meyerbeer's opera L'Africaine (1865), the heroine Sélika dies by inhaling the perfume of the manchineel tree's blossoms.[24]
In the story "The Beckoning Hand", in the 1887 collection of that name by Grant Allen, a manchineel (spelled "manchineal" here) leaf is rolled in a cigarette in an attempt to poison a person.[25][26]
In the film Wind Across the Everglades (1958), a notorious poacher named Cottonmouth (played by Burl Ives) ties a victim to the trunk of a manchineel tree, which a character explains as "the only tree that carves its initials into you."[27]
^"Hippomane mancinella". Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants. Plantatlas.org. Archived from the original on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2009-01-23.
^ abFriedman, Michael G. Andreu and Melissa H. (24 November 2015). "Hippomane mancinella, Manchineel". Edis. School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. 2012 (10). doi:10.32473/edis-fr370-2012. S2CID222588980. Archived from the original on 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2015-11-29.
^Bygbjerg, I.C.; Johansen, H.K. (1991). "Manchineel poisoning complicated by streptococcal pharyngitis and impetigo". Ugeskr. Laeger. 154 (1): 27–28. PMID1781062.
^Frohne, Dietrich; Alford, Hans Jürgen Pfänder (2005). Poisonous plants: a handbook for doctors, pharmacists, toxicologists, biologists, and veterinarians. Translated by Inge (2nd ed.). Portland: Timber Press. ISBN0881927503.[page needed]
^Planet, Lonely. "Directory". Lonely Planet. Archived from the original on 2020-09-17. Retrieved 2020-09-16.
^Grunwald, Michael (2007). "Chapter 2: The Intruders". The Swamp. Simon & Schuster. p. 25. ISBN978-0-7432-5107-5. Archived from the original on 2019-03-31. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
^"Little Apple of Death". Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services - Division of Plant Industry. 24 October 2016. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
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