Umdhlebi
Encyclopedia
Umdhlebi is an unverified plant
species purported to originate in Zululand
, South Africa
. It was first reported in the journal Nature
on November 2, 1882 by Reverend G. W. Parker, a missionary in South Africa, who said the plant was poisonous.
According to Parker, Zulus sacrificed sheep and goats to the tree to calm the evil spirit. As of 2010, no specimen of the Umdhlebi has ever been recovered, and other than 19th century anecdotal evidence no further verification is known to exist.
Parker never identified the source or nature of its poison, but hypothesized that it secreted a poisonous gas from the soil around its roots.
Plant
Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...
species purported to originate in Zululand
Zulu Kingdom
The Zulu Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or, rather imprecisely, Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north....
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. It was first reported in the journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
on November 2, 1882 by Reverend G. W. Parker, a missionary in South Africa, who said the plant was poisonous.
According to Parker, Zulus sacrificed sheep and goats to the tree to calm the evil spirit. As of 2010, no specimen of the Umdhlebi has ever been recovered, and other than 19th century anecdotal evidence no further verification is known to exist.
Characteristics
The Umdhlebi is described as having large, fragile green leaves, and two layers of bark—a dead outer layer that hung off the tree, and a new living layer that grew beneath it. The fruit of the tree was reported to be red and black, and to hang from branches like small poles.Effects
Parker said the Umdhlebi poisoned animals that approached so that the natural process of decay would fertilize the soil in which it was growing. Symptoms of the tree's poison reportedly included headache and bloodshot eyes, followed by delirium and then death.Parker never identified the source or nature of its poison, but hypothesized that it secreted a poisonous gas from the soil around its roots.