Umdhlebi

Umdhlebi or umdhlebe is an unverified plant species purported to originate in Zululand, South Africa. Henry Callaway's The Religious System of the Amazulu, published in 1870, records several stories of the tree; an additional report appeared in a letter to the journal Nature on 2 November 1882 by Reverend G. W. Parker, a missionary in Madagascar^[1] who said the plant was poisonous.^[2]

To date, no specimen of the umdhlebe has ever been recovered, and other than 19th-century anecdotal evidence, no further verification is known to exist.

Characteristics

Though providing little in the way of physical description—focusing instead on the extreme toxicity of the plant and its purported capacity for movement—the accounts collected by Callaway nonetheless mention several varieties of umdhlebe.^{[3]:421–427} Parker describes two of these in greater detail: a small, shrub-like form, and a larger tree with two layers of bark—a dead outer layer, and a new living layer that grows beneath it; both are described as having red and black fruit and brittle, glossy, lanceolate leaves.

The fruit of the tree was reported to hang from branches like small poles.

Habitat

The umdhlebe is reported to grow in a variety of habitats, but to prefer rocky ground; nonetheless, Parker notes that the area around the tree is 'often fertile'.^[2]

A particularly impressive specimen was reported from the vicinity of Umlazi.^[3]:422

Effects

The umdhlebe was reported to be extremely toxic, poisoning any living thing upon approach- perhaps so that the natural process of decay would fertilize the soil in which it was growing. The ground around it was often littered with skeletons.^[3]:421 When damaged, it was reported to release a dangerously caustic fluid.^{[3]:422, note 86}Symptoms of the tree's poison reportedly included chills, headache, bloodshot eyes, severe pain, abdominal swelling, diarrhea, fever, delirium, and death.^{[2][3]:423–424}The mechanism by which this poison is delivered is unclear. Parker mentions the possibility of "carbonic acid gas" exuded from the soil around the tree, but notes that the tree is not confined to such soils; Callaway records a case in which a large number of people were sickened, some fatally, after using umdhlebe wood as fuel for a cooking fire.^{[3]:424–425}

The fruit of the umdhlebe was accorded medicinal properties,^[3] including acting as an antidote to the tree's own poison.^[2] The collection of these fruits required that the tree's poison be avoided or ameliorated through one of several methods - by making use of unspecified medicines,^[3]:423 by offering a goat or sheep to propitiate the tree's spirit, or simply by approaching the tree from the windward side.^[2]

Name and identity

Callaway speculates that the tree is "a kind of aspen",^{[3]:421, note 85} and notes a similarity to the folklore surrounding the upas of Java — a resemblance also mentioned by the botanist William Turner Thiselton-Dyer in a comment published alongside Parker's letter.^[1]

Responding to Parker's letter, a writer identified only as 'H.M.C.' proposed that the word 'umdhlebe' is a derivative of the Zulu root hlaba, and speculated that the legend may have its origin in accounts of one or more members of the spurge family.^[4]

See also

• Man-eating tree
• Manchineel

References

1. 1 2 Thistleton Dyer, W.T. (2 November 1882). "Umdhlebi Tree of Zululand". Nature. 27 (679): 7. doi:10.1038/027007a0. Retrieved 22 June 2013. 
2. 1 2 3 4 5 Parker, G.W. (2 November 1882). "Umdhlebi Tree of Zululand". Nature. 27 (679): 7. doi:10.1038/027007b0. Retrieved 22 June 2013. 
3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Callaway, Henry. The Religious System of the Amazulu (in English and isiZulu). Springvale, Natal. Retrieved 22 June 2013.  CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
4. ↑ "H.M.C." (9 November 1882). "The Umdhlebe Tree of Zululand". Nature. 27 (680): 32. doi:10.1038/027032a0. Retrieved 22 June 2013.