I’ve always had a fascination with apples, maybe it’s because of my father would drag me to the apple orchid when I was young. While he picked apples all day, my brother and I would play in the orchid; climbing trees, having apple wars, and I can’t help but wonder how many apples we would eat in one day.

Of course I’m not alone with my apple fascination, religion, mythology, and folktales have all incorporated the apple as a mystical or forbidden fruit for years. The scene of the evil witch giving Snow White a poisonous apple by The Brothers Grim in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs comes to mind when finding out about the Manchineel Tree.

Have you ever heard of the Manchineel Tree? I never could have imagined that an apple could really be deadly. Its present day Spanish name is “manzanilla de la muerte” which means “little apple of death.” This tree is so deadly that you should never stand under it while it’s raining, if the sap touches your skin it will blister and can even cause blindness. The apples from a Manchineel Tree are fatal. Since the “little apple of death” is native to the Caribbean, this seems like vital information for everyone to know what the Manchineel Tree looks like. 

This is what to look for: