On August 10, 2021 Meg Lowman took to Literary Hub to write a story about when she encountered one of the most toxic trees in the world. Here’s a sneak peak into that article:
“My first exposure to this gorgeous, fuzzy, and soft-looking leaf came during a solo exploration of Australia’s subtropical jungles. When I first touched its brilliant emerald foliage, I had the sense of either grabbing a hot coal or having thirty wasps sting all at once. Toxic hairs lodged under my skin, and the pain lasted for days. I was even more surprised to experience the same excruciating burn when I picked up a dead leaf on the forest floor. Not fun! Even a one-hundred-year-old herbarium specimen can gave a noxious sting to an innocent botanist who handles it without gloves. One fellow student claimed touching the even more toxic Queensland Gympie-Gympie was “like burning yourself with hot acid and getting electrocuted at the same time.”’
To read the full story, click here!
This story is an excerpt from Meg Lowman’s memoir The Arbornaut: A life discovering the eight continent in the trees above. The Arbornaut is available to order now from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, your local independent bookseller, or anywhere else books are sold.
