In the Florida Everglades grows the incredibly corrupt Manchineel tree.

In 2011, the Guiness Book of World Records named it the most dangerous tree in the world.

The Manchineel has delicate, shiny green leaves, reddish-grey bark and small greenish-yellow flowers. It grows nearly 50 feet high. But it isn’t the friendly tree that it appears to be.

The Manchineel tree has been journaled about as far back as the conquistadors who discovered the Americas. They called its deceptively sweet looking fruit “little apples of death.” One bite is enough to kill.

The sap of the tree burns skin. Even rain water dripping from its limbs will cause skin to burn and blister on contact. Sap in the eyes causes blindness, as does the smoke caused from trying to burn it.

Conversely, we have a lemon tree in our yard.

It is so big that it has fruit all year. In the spring, especially after heavy rains, our neighbors come knocking. Our lemons are sweet enough to eat raw.

In all honesty, when the summers are extra dry, the lemons are hollow and juiceless. They just need more of that life giving water! But no matter how dry it gets, our beloved lemon tree will never be a Manchineel.

What kind of tree are you?