naure.com
NatureSurprise 5/5Difficulty 3/5Reviewed on October 17, 2026

The sting of the gympie-gympie, an Australian stinging tree, can cause pain for weeks or even months.

Why it is true

Its leaves and stems are covered with ultra-fine silica hairs that break off in the skin like needles and inject toxins. In 2020 scientists found that these toxins act on pain nerves in a similar way to spider and scorpion venom.

Source: Science Advances (Gilding et al., 2020)

Would you rather be asked first?

This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.

Test yourself →10-question challenge

Related facts

More in Nature

See all →

Our other sites

More to play and discover