• Agent641
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    17 hours ago

    In Australia there’s a tree called Gympie-Gympie.

    “Gympie” is a powerful swear-word in the local aboriginal language (like “Fucking cunt!”) and in that language, repeating a word twice is like amplifying it 10x. They named this tree the most aggressive swear they could come up with.

    The tree is covered in tiny hypodermic needle-like hairs. Brushing against it leaves you coated in these hairs which inflict a pain that has been described as like being burned with fire, except with fire, your nerve endings are eventually destroyed. Not so with the Gympie-Gympie.

    Pain from an encounter has been known to last for months or years. There is a story of a soldier on patrol who used it’s leaves as toilet paper. He committed suicide after a few weeks. There’s a report of a horse which brushed one of these trees, and it went mad and ran nonstop until it found a cliff and ran right over the edge to its death.

    Gympie-Gympie leaves would make the most cursed glitter imaginable

    • ITGuyLevi@programming.dev
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      16 hours ago

      Those leaves remind me of stinging nettles… I’m sure Gympie-Gympie is worse, but my first time being stung by nettles scared the shit out of me as they got me clear through my jeans.